Chapter 24

Sara's sleep was very restless and she woke numerous times during the night, often when one of the nurses came to check her vitals. When she did, she felt groggy and somehow disconnected from the rest of the world. She could still feel the effects of the sedative in her system. It made her feel vulnerable and helpless, two emotions she had spent her life avoiding. The betrayal she felt from Grissom's actions became more and more keen as the effects of the drugs wore off and she came to think more clearly. She had never felt so alone.

When she woke again, it was just before dawn to find Grissom sitting in a chair by her bed, reading a forensic journal. He smiled when he was that she was awake.

"How do you feel?"

"Ok. Hungry actually," she fell silent briefly. "Why are you here?"

"I brought you some of your stuff," he answered and held up a duffel bag. He had Catherine help him pack it, but didn't want to tell her that just yet.

Sara frowned. The fact that Grissom had gone through her stuff made her feel very weird.

"Uh thanks. Did you ask them to put something in my drip?"

Grissom looked down as he scooted his chair closer.

"Sara you needed to rest. You have been working way to hard lately."

It looked like he was going to say more, but then thought better of it. Sara searched his eyes, but found them unreadable. So once again his actions is all about the good of the lab, she thought miserably. She wasn't really expecting it to be different.

"When can I go home?" she asked him, carefully keeping her emotions out of her voice.

"The doctor said you have to stay here at least till tomorrow…" Seeing the reaction on her face he quickly added; "Sara please. It's for your own good. I brought you some stuff to read."

Placing his peace offering next to her bed Grissom got up to leave and put his jacket on.

"I'll come check on you again before shift. Try to get some rest ok?" He asked as he reached the door. Sara, feeling confused and betrayed, drifted back to sleep.

When she woke again, it took her a while to find her bearings. Her head felt as if it was stuffed with wool and her abdomen was extremely tender. At the level of the incision, it felt like a knife had been plunged into her. Lying in the unfamiliar bed, she realised that she desperately wanted to go home. She suspected the doctor would be unwilling to discharge her, so she did not mean to ask. Fortunately her clothes were in a neat pile next to her bed, along with the stuff Grissom brought. Struggling out of the ridiculous hospital gown and into her clothes was a chore. Especially the jeans, as it was still painful to bend her right knee. But Sara was nothing if not determent. When she was done, she had to sit on the hospital bed for few minutes to get her breath back and wait the black spot in front of her eyes to clear, with her blood pounding in her ears. She felt dismayed that so little physical exertion affected her so severely. As soon as she felt better, she collected her stuff from her bedside table and made her way down the hall. Unfortunately Dr. Heyns spotted her and came over with a frown.

"Your' not supposed to be out of bed yet Miss. Sidle. Let me help you back to your room." He tried to take her arm but she stepped away from him.

"I had appendicitis right?" she said, hoping she didn't look as pale as she felt. "So after its removal all I need to recover is rest and a course of antibiotics correct? Well if you can give me the antibiotics, I would much rather do the rest part at home thank you."

Sara tone wasn't aggressive or condescending, but the doctor could see in her eyes that he wasn't going to be able to persuade her to stay.

"Wait here. I'll have the nurse bring you your meds and the forms you need to sign. But you understand you are checking yourself out against doctors orders," he said grudgingly. Narrowing his eyes he added "And you're not to return to work for a full two weeks. That's fourteen days, not two."

When she was done with all the paperwork, Sara found her car in the reserved parking area right outside the door. She was immensely relieved to find her car so close because the walk from her room had nearly exhausted her. She did however feel better than she had back in the hospital room. Lowering herself into the driving seat was very painful but she managed. She allowed herself only a moment to recover as she suspected the Dr. Heyns was observing her. She drove slowly and avoided gear change as much as possible. Once she reached her apartment complex, she stayed in her car for a full fifteen minutes to gather her strength. Using the lift to get to her apartment, her glee to be back home was short lived when she realised that she could detect subtle changes. As if someone had been in her flat. In her line of work you can't help but noticing these things, but she doubted herself as her recollection of the last time she was in her apartment was a little sketchy. But the of course Grissom and probably some of the team had been in here. She almost cringed at the thought of how her privacy was invaded, but they were the closest thing to a family that she has. Her phone battery was completely dead, so she plugged it in to charge. Turning it on, she saw she had quite a few missed calls. Deciding those could wait she made her way the bathroom. She felt drained, but desperately wanted to take a shower. The warm water soother her aching body, and stepping gingerly out of the shower Sara reflected how good it felt to be clean. Worming into her most comfortable frumps, she popped some of the antibiotics together with an aspirin and blessedly got into bed. She hardly felt as if she had slept before the ringing of her phone woke her. Staring at the screen for a full ten seconds she finally saw that it was Kobus Gertenbach.

"Miss. Sidle?" he answered the moment her line connected. "Hi. It's Kobus. Kobus Gertenbach. Look can we meet somewhere?"

The South African sounded worried. Sara was about to make an excuse and say no, but to her surprise she realised that she felt better. A whole lot better actually. Glancing at her watch she realized she had slept for almost eight hours. Something which was almost unprecedented for her.

"Sure. When do you want to meet?"

"As soon as possible really. Actually where are you? Can I come pick you up? It really is important"

Sara thought for a moment, before giving Gertenbach directions to her apartment building.

The phone was ringing. Looking from the paperwork Gertenbach had spread over her coffee table, Sara glanced at her phone. The two of them had been laying out the case for the last twenty minutes. To her dismay, Grissom's name showed up on the caller ID.

"Do you need to take that?" Gertenbach asked her, studying her face with curiosity. Sara hesitated, then shook her head.

"It can wait" she replied, if Gertenbach could place the emotions in her voice he didn't comment on it.

Sara turned back to the documents in front of her. Apart from the details of the poaching case, with which she was intimately familiar, there were various documents concerning her. Photos of her at crime scenes, shopping for groceries, talking to the team outside PD. Someone had been keeping an eye on her.

"I recovered these last night. Please don't ask me how. Whether you want to or not, you're in their crosshairs," Gertenbach explained.

"So what you're basically saying is that I've become a person of interest for these people."

"I just wanted to give you the heads up."

Sara noted how he liked to use that phrase. Gertenbach started putting the documents back into his folder when her phone rang again.

Grissom.

Realising that she could not avoid him forever, Sara sighed and picked up her phone.

"Sidle."

"Why are you not in the hospital?" She could immediately hear the frustration in his voice.

"I'm feeling fine, thank you for asking." Sara could feel her hackles rising at his tone. How dare he presume to tell her what to do?

"You had major abdominal surgery less than forty hours ago. You are well aware that you should still be in bed."

Sara refrained from answering, unwilling to have a full-blown shouting match in front of Gertenbach, who was pretending to be very absorbed in his documents.

"Anything else?"

She could tell that the ice in her tone surprised Grissom as he was quiet for a long time.

"The doctor put you on sick leave for 14 days….." This time he tried to use a gentler tone, but it just infuriated Sara more.

"Fine," Sara snapped. "I won't come to work." She hung up as soon as she said it and turned back to Gertenbach.

"What are you planning to do now?" she asked Gertenbach as she watched him carefully.

"Well, there are some leads I want to follow. Why?"

She smiled at him, hoping she wasn't going to regret it.

"Because I'm tagging along."

Grissom ran a weary hand through his hair. His conversation with Sara went nothing like the way he planned it. Instead of conveying his concern for her, he had inflamed her temper and now her back was up. He had wanted to have a serious talk with her, explaining how he felt when he couldn't find her and above all apologize for the way he acted when she had phoned him sick. Brass was also urging him to tell Sara what they had found regarding her so called missing files. Grissom was still unsure if he wanted to tell her they were looking into that at all. In his mind it always went swimmingly, but whenever he had to face her, he became tongue tied and awkward. Hurting without intent and pulling away when all he really wanted to do was draw closer. He was tired, hungry and in desperate need of a shower, but instead he drove to Sara's place. He was afraid that if he waited, he would only procrastinate again and revert to the same rut as before. When he reached her apartment, he rushed to her door, not wanting to give himself time to over think the situation. But once at the door, it took him a few minutes to gather up the courage to knock. He wasn't certain she wanted to see him. After knocking for the third time, he gave up and walked back to his car. He couldn't blame her for not answering.

Sara watched Gertenbach drive from the corner of her eye. The big man seemed to fill the whole seat and his head grazed the ceiling. He kept his arms tucked in close to his body as if endeavouring to take up the least amount of room possible. Yet, he was a very good driver.

They were on their way to a long term storage locker used by the deceased Agent Smith. Gertenbach had only recently stumbled onto its existence and had yet to look into it. Sara had jumped at the opportunity to tag along.

Anything to feel useful.

Her surgery wound was nagging her a bit, but it was a breeze compared to what it was before. It was getting into and out of a car that proved very painful, but she thought that she had been hiding that very well.

"Don't we need a warrant?" Sara queried when they were outside the storage facility.

"I have the key." Gertenbach grinned. Somehow Sara got the impression that not having a warrant won't have proved much of a deterrent.

Gertenbach brandished the key and the clerk at the front desk who just waved them through, quickly returning to his soap opera on a small TV in his office.

The locker proved to be almost empty but for three big boxes full of files and paperwork. Sara removed a pair of gloves from her handbag (she hardly went anywhere without a few basic supplies) and offered some to Gertenbach who declined in favour of his own. His hands were considerably bigger than hers so her gloves wouldn't have fit anyway.

He sat on his haunches and pulled a file from the nearest box. It was covered in a thin layer of dust, but then again many things were in the desert. Gertenbach whistled softly through his teeth and he showed the file to Sara. It was a photograph of a pile of stuff, a grinning man standing next to it with his hands on his hips and a very satisfied grin plastered on his face. His eyes were shielded by an expensive pair of shades, but there was no mistaking Conrad Nieves. Sara squinted at the picture, trying to figure out what the pile of stuff was Nieves was so proudly standing next to.

"Is that…"

"A pile of ivory and rhino-horn," Gertenbach interjected. "Ja". His voice was bitter with disgust.

He picked another file at random and flipped through it.

"Ag my donder man! This is the exact same stuff Wollie showed me just before I left. When will all these bloody organizations learn to work together?"

He rammed the file back into the box where he had pulled it from.

"Right. I think we should take these with us. Don't you?"

Before she could reply, Gertenbach stacked the three boxes and picked them up. Normally Sara would have insisted on carrying at least one, if not two herself, but for once she was content to let others do the heavy lifting. Gertenbach waited while she locked up and the set of to the car.

"I think we should takes these to my place."

Sara had spoken as soon as the idea took shape in her head. Gertenbach looked as if he was about to argue but she quickly continued.

"I have time to go through them."

When Gertenbach still did not look convinced she sighed and explained. "I'm booked of on sick leave. I'm not to go into the lab for a few days"

"Why?"

Sara cringed inwardly. "I had an appendectomy, but I'm fine," she forestalled his objections. "And I need something to keep me busy."