Chapter 16

Sara woke from the beeping of a drip pump. For a moment she was confused as to where she was, but then she saw Chris and remembered. He was lying on his chest, his head resting on his feet. The moment she moved, he raised his head and gave her a big soppy doggy kiss to say hello. Sara was surprised to find that they were each covered by a grey doggy-blanket, though Chris had mostly shrugged his off.

Sara smiled at him briefly and turned on her back just in time to see a lady came tip-toeing in.

"Oh, sorry," she whispered. "Dr. Becks gave strict instructions not to disturb you. I'm Susan, the night-nurse." She spoke as she changed the empty drip bag for a new one. Then she replaced the full urine bag as well." Can I get you anything? Some coffee maybe?"

Sara glanced at her watch, not completely ready to answer yet. It was 02:10. She was astounded that she had managed to fall asleep, and actually managed a good spell. Not to mention that it had almost been more peaceful than in her own bed. She scooted out of the cage and got up. As she stretched Chris tried to get out as well but the nurse motioned to him to stay, closing the gate behind Sara.

"No sorry boy, you have to stay put," Susan spoke kindly then turned to Sara. "Look I'll stay with him if you just want to run to the loo or something."

Her words made Sara aware of her own discomfort and she shifted, nodding gratefully.

"Ok, I'll be quick. Thanks."

She left the room and it was only on her way back that she realized she had forgotten her cell-phone and purse in the car. With all the commotion of their arrival, she'd completely forgotten about it.

Quickly grabbing her stuff from her car, she also grabbed the new forensics journal she hadn't had time to read yet. She knew there was no way she'd sleep now.

To her dismay, there was a bunch of new text messages and 5 missed calls on her cell. All the missed calls were from Grissom. Sara frowned and felt unease settle in her stomach.

She read the messages first. They were all from Greg. The first was from when the night shift that had started around 23:00 the previous night.

Hope ur having fun, Grissom is stalking round like a bear with sore tooth.

Next came about an hour later.

Heads up. think Griss gonna call u in. We have a tripple.

Then followed two missed calls from Grissom, he didn't leave a voice mail, and the text messages from Greg continued.

At least someone is having fun. Smiley face x2. G is biting everyone's heads off.

I'll never tease you again if you can come tame the monster.

U ok?

Followed by more missed calls.

She quickly sent a text to Greg .

Chris was admitted to hosp. Sorry. Forgot phone in car. Everything's fine.

Then, with a tight knot in her stomach, she phoned Grissom. The line rang a few times before he answered without any grace.

"Sara, where have you been? I've been trying to reach you all night!" He barked over the line.

Sara was glad for the heads up from Greg or her temper would have flared immediately. As it were she could feel herself getting angry anyway. It was her night off and, as far as Grissom was concerned, she was spending it with a friend.

"I took a friend of mine to hospital," she said coldly. "He had bladder-stones. I forgot my phone in my car, I'm sorry."

She didn't know why she apologized and she wished she could take the words back the moment she said them, it made her angrier that once again she was over talking to him. Can't I keep anything to myself?

But then she could hear him sigh tiredly over the line, the sound was filled with so much strain and emotion, and somehow so intimate that she felt her anger melt away.

"Is he ok?" Grissom asked in a softer voice.

"Yes, thank you, they relieved the obstruction and he's awake."

She fell silent and an awkward silence settled over them.

"Look," she broke it. "Do you need me to come in?"

At the start of the call, Sara had no intention of even offering to go in, but she knew now that she would if he asked her. No second thought about it. She would go anywhere if he asked it of her.

"No, it's ok. Stay with your friend. I got Sofia to help".

Shit

"Oh," was all she could think to say and the awkward silence descended again.

She wanted to stay with Chris, but the thought that Grissom had turned to Sofia hurt.

"Ok, so see you tonight then," she said and prayed that Grissom wouldn't hear the pain and defeat in her voice.

"Ok, see you then."

And, with that - he rang off.

It was a very pensive Sara that returned to Chris's side. He whined with excitement and pleasure when he saw her and that at least warmed her heart. She scooted back into the cage, but spent a long time just stroking his coat before she could get herself to concentrate on the journal.

The night wore on, Sara dosed occasionally, and dawn broke lazily. At around six, Dr. Becks came in.

"How is he doing?" he asked Sara, who put her journal down to study him.

"Good. I think, he seems normal and much more himself. He even ate a bit of the food Susan offered him"

Dr. Becks nodded and started turning away. Sara would've been offended if it was any other person but she had started to get to know the doctor's mannerisms.

"Dr. Becks, when will he be able to go home?"

The vet glanced back and eyed her ruefully, studying her properly for the first time."I'm sorry. My wife keeps telling me to be more of a people person. We will remove his catheter this morning and as soon as he urinates by himself he can go home." He stood back, looking at the pair in the cage.

"Did you stay the whole night?" He asked Sara and for the first time, she saw something how kind his face looked when he smiled.

"Yes. Thanks for allowing me to."

"Chris is a lucky dog." He paused awkwardly. "What is your name by the way?"

Sara grinned. This man reminded her so much of Grissom, it was almost scary and painful.

"Sara Sidle, please to meet you and thank you for saving my dog."

"Jonathan Becks. And you're welcome." Then he turned and left.

At around ten-ish Lucy came to remove Chris's catheter and Sara took him to sit outside on the grass with her. Sara never knew she could get so excited over a dog peeing, but she was ecstatic when the border collie urinated against a tree. The bladder-stones were actually cystein-crystals and, beside the antibiotic course Chris needed to finish, he also needed to go on a special diet to prevent this problem in the future. Sara paid the vet bill, which was considerably less than she expected considering the care Chris received, and bought him his new food.

On their way home Sara remembered Mrs. Milligan for the first time. Feeling extremely guilty for only thinking of it now, Sara called her and filled her in. She took it much calmer than Sara expected and brushed over Sara's apology for not phoning her sooner. She also insisted on paying half of the vet bill. Sara laughed and said it wasn't up for discussion.

At home Sara took a nice long hot shower, before crawling into bed with the dog by her side. The shaven area on his leg felt weird and Sara kept stroking it till Chris tucked his leg under his head and gave her a look.

"Ok sorry. Message received." Together, they drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up again (and to be fair, the bed was considerably more comfortable than the dog hospital cage, it was still a good few hours before the start of her shift, but she started getting ready anyway. She planned on getting some work done on the poaching case, as had been her plan for the weekend. She dropped Chris off at Mrs. Milligan's who was overjoyed to see him again. Happy that he was alright, Sara went to work.

Just as she reached the lab, her phone rang and she was surprised to see that it was an international call.

"Sara Sidle," she answered cautiously.

"Sara, It's Wollie. Wollie Wolmerans. Listen are you busy or can you talk?"

"No I can talk, go ahead Wollie." She had trouble saying his name as he pronounced it.

"Right. We just made a bust and I found a whole lot of passports with USA visa's issued to them. Real ones. Thing is, I know for a fact that some of these guys have criminal records."

He fell silent as if expecting Sara to say something.

"I assume that should not have happened?"

"It can be very difficult to get a US visa as a South African in the current climate, and almost impossible if you have a criminal record. Someone is greasing palms and pushing favors. I've had my suspicions for a while, and I have nailed a guy working at our Department of Home affairs. But someone from the American side must also be involved and my hands are tied as far as that is concerned. All this bureaucratic crap. Can I send you what I found so far? Someone is into it up to their necks."

"Yes please." Something that had been bugging Sara the whole conversation suddenly clicked in her mind.

"Wollie, what time is it there?"

"Around 04:00, I think. I couldn't sleep and have been raking my brain over this damn visa business. I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time. It's late afternoon there right?"

"Yes, just after 18:00. Look, get some sleep and I'll mail you if I find anything."

"Cool, cheers."

He rang off before Sara had the time to say goodbye, but she was very familiar with the nervous energy that could take hold of you when you suffered from insomnia.

All thought of what Wollie had just told her flew out of her mind when she reached the locker room and saw Grissom coming the other way. He looked like a bus had run him over, it had obviously not been a good night, and he was probably set to pull a triple. His clothes were rumpled and he had dark circles under his eyes, something he wasn't prone to get. He was walking determinately towards DNA and was frowning deeply at the file in his hands. It accentuated the cleft in his chin. Even in this state Sara felt her heart rate quicken.

"Hi Griss. How's the case going?"

He looked up and was genuinely surprised and grateful to see her, Sara saw something bright flash over his face before he drew the veil back down.

"Not so good." He said taking a deep sign. He glanced at his watch and grimaced at the time.

"Need any help?"

Eying her gratefully he passed her a yellow slip of paper.

"Robbery at a jewelry store on the strip. There were just so many cases coming in that this one kept being pushed back."

Taking the paper from Grissom Sara glanced at it.

"Say no more. I'll take it." She wanted to say more, she felt slightly guilty that she didn't come in last night, but he was already past her and into the DNA lab. Sara watched him for a moment before grabbing her kit.