The Breaking Point
folder
CSI › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
17
Views:
8,928
Reviews:
14
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
CSI › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
17
Views:
8,928
Reviews:
14
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own CSI, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Sometime Last Year
July 14, 2005
Sara, Greg and Max were sitting in the break room. Max Carruthers was a Level II CSI from Reno. He had been there for about a month, replacing Sofia Curtis after she left. Sofia could never come to grips with her “demotion” to graveyard. She learned to her sorrow that no one could or should trust Ecklie. Although, she had been a good CSI, no one really missed her.
Grissom came striding into the room. He stopped so abruptly at the door to gaze at Sara that the three CSIs behind him almost ran him down.
“OK, we have multiple DBs on the North Side. Possible gang shootout. Everyone better get their Kevlar vests and everyone is packing tonight. And Swing is joining us to process the scene. We have lots of backup tonight. But keep your eyes open. Right? Let’s go.” As Grissom nodded his head almost imperceptibly towards Sara; the slightest smile threatened the corners of her mouth. It was their signal that she would ride to the crime scene with him. The camaraderie between the two shifts was easy and light even though they all knew that there would be a long arduous night ahead of them.
The atmosphere at the lab had lightened considerably in the last month. Gil Grissom had finally pulled his head from the microscope and made a bold move. He and Sara were now an item. No one was sure why; maybe it was Griss’s approaching 50th birthday, a midlife crisis. Maybe he had finally taken one of Sara’s threats to leave seriously. No one knew but no one really cared because Grissom was almost pleasant at work and even had been heard to crack a few jokes with Greg and Max.
Sara positively glowed from some inner radiance. And more than one wag hinted at the possibility that the Graveyard supervisor and his new girlfriend were expecting. But Sara was just happy, happier than she had been in a long time. As each day passed Sara and Gil, for she called him by his Christian name now, were growing closer and closer. In fact, they had yet to be intimate. Grissom said he waiting for the perfect time to make love to her. *’Maybe tonight,’ Sara thought. ‘Maybe tonight.’*
Neither Sara nor Grissom were aware that tonight would begin their longest journey together.
The Crime Scene
The CSIs had been processing the scene for about an hour when it happened. To this day, Gil himself could not remember what it was that made him act; a noise, that fleeting motion you see out of the corner of your eye, that draws your glance and then your head in a certain direction. Whatever, it was Grissom started yelling at the top of his lungs, “DOWN! EVERYBODY DOWN! TAKE COVER NOW.”
The gang, Los Diablos that had gunned down five members of Los Coyotes had returned to the crime scene. Los Diablos had no love for the LVPD or the CSIs. They had decided to come back and see if they could have some of their own peculiar kind of fun and maybe rack a few more notches on their MAC-10s.
Griss was about fifteen feet from Sara when the first Diablos opened fire. Grissom drew his sidearm sprinted towards Sara, shoved her behind a Tahoe, all the while yelling for everyone to take cover. He opened fire on the gang members as he reversed his direction; knowing that this was sure to draw fire away from Sara and the other CSIs and officers. He almost made it behind another Tahoe.
’Damn’ he thought. It felt like someone had taken a 50-lb. sledge hammer and whacked him on the left thigh. The force of the two MAC-10 bullets that hit his left thigh knocked him backwards covering the last five feet to the Tahoe. His gun skittered away from his hand. He lay stunned on the blacktop like an overturned tortoise. He couldn’t move. He tried to grasp his thigh but the breath was quite knocked from his lungs. All he could do was lie there and wheeze a few caustic curses.
Fortunately, sirens began to wail quite nearby. Brass had had a bad feeling and called for backup moments before Grissom yelled his warning. The Los Diablos SUVs sped off down the street.
“Everyone ok?” Brass yelled. One by one the six CSIs and five LVPD officers began popping up from behind the Tahoes and patrol cars. A general wave of relief swept over his face as he thought they had escaped without any casualties; but then his face turned pale. “Grissom! Grissom, where the hell are you?” Brass bellowed. ‘God Damn the man. Where is he off to?’
He heard a funny wheezing sound off to his right. “Griss” he yelled as he ran over. “Griss, you idiot”. Grissom had managed by this time to drag himself over to the wheel well of the nearest Tahoe. He was sitting up and staring at something near his left thigh.
“Hey, Jim.” Grissom voice wheezed as he nodded towards his thigh. “Watching old faithful. Who knew the old man had so much blood in him.” Brass was ripping the leather belt from his pants as he ran. “Someone throw me a fucking baton. And god damn it call 911. We need Care Flight and tell them to bring plenty of plasma. We got a bleeder.”
One of the officers brought a baton and a couple of blankets over to Brass. Brass quickly made a tourniquet for Grissom’s left leg. 30 seconds on 10 seconds off. Brass muttered to himself. Sara had run up from behind the Tahoe where she had been pushed by Grissom.
“Oh, Gil.” She sobbed. “Oh, Gil”. “Sara, take these blankets and keep him warm. He’s going into shock” Brass managed to get Griss to lie down with his injured leg elevated by a couple of CSI cases. Grissom had almost passed out when they had moved his leg. Brass felt sure that Grissom’s femur was broken. Regardless, he was most concerned about the amount of blood Grissom was loosing. If the Care Flight didn’t arrive soon, Gil would bleed out.
Sara was holding Gil’s hand and talking softly, encouragingly. Grissom was answering back. Brass felt oddly out of place at being witness to such intimacies; but knew both he and Sara were concentrating on keeping Grissom conscious and alive.
Brass sighed in relief as the soft whomp, whomp of helicopter blades grow louder as the Care Flight chopper slowly began descending to the parking lot. As the helicopter touched down several people carrying several cases of equipment jumped out and began to run towards Sara, Grissom and Brass.
“Ok, folks what have we got? Details, now!” The young woman stated brusquely. Brass stared at her momentarily and saw she was not just an EMT but an ER doctor. Brass then reverted to his cop mode, “Gil Grissom, 49 year old male; gunshot wound to the thigh, high velocity bullets about 6 minutes ago,” glancing at his watch. “His blood type is AB -; He’s not allergic to Penicillin but he is to Demerol. They have his records at the hospital. I think his femur is broken.” During this short exchange, one EMT had begun cutting the pants leg on Griss’s left thigh. Another EMT had started two sub clavicle IVs one plasma and the other saline. He had also placed EKG pads on Gil’s chest. The third EMT had placed an oxygen tube around Grissom’s head. The 1st EMT began by packing gauze into the wound on Griss’s thigh and had wrapped a pressure bandage around the thigh.
“Justin, vitals!” Dr. Maxine Carruthers yelled. Brass feeling he had been dismissed stood aside but close enough to monitor the situation. Catherine came up to Brass, just then.
“Jim how is Gil?” her voice breaking slightly.
“It looks bad, Cath. Look, you have to finish processing scene. Sara will go with Griss to the hospital. When all the evidence is logged, you can come to hospital to take any evidence from Grissom. I know we all want to go to hospital, but Gil would want us to do our jobs. So job first. Now go, do it.” Brass sighed.
By now Grissom had been strapped to a backboard, they were about to load him up.
Dr. Max turned to Sara, “You coming with?”
“I thought you wouldn’t let me?”
“I’ve been watching you interact with my patient, you’ve been keeping him calm. I need that. I’m going to be blunt; he’s lost a lot of blood. He may loose that leg. A lot of bad things may happen; so I want to stack the deck in our favor. I’ll let you stay with him as long as I can. So let’s go.”
“Jim, I need a bindle and a pair of scissors” Brass handed the items to Sara who cut a locket of her hair, put it in the small envelope and sealed it with a kiss.
“Maxine, I can call you Maxine?” Sara said. “Can you tape this to his hand? So he can hold on to me even in the OR?”
Even though she had been a doctor, a surgeon and an orthopedic specialist for many years, she had never seen anything like it before and it touched her heart. Dr. Max held out her hand and Sara dropped the bindle in her hand. “Justin, tape.” She snagged the tape one handed knelt down next Grissom.
“Dr. Grissom, look at me.” Gris who was struggling to remain conscious at this point moved his eyes in the direction of her voice. “We are about ready to load up and go to the hospital. You have a very serious injury. I will probably be one of your doctors for the long haul. Your Sara will go us with to the hospital. It’s important that you remain as calm as possible. This…” she said as she held up the small envelope and then began to tape it to the palm of his right hand with surgical tape, “is a very personal gift from Sara to you. No one will take it from you. I want you to hold on to it. Sara can’t be with you every minute. I try to keep her with you as much as I can.”
“Now a lot of things are going to happen once we get to the hospital. Some will be very painful; some will be embarrassing; and quite a few will be very unpleasant. But everyone has a single goal, your survival and your recovery. You job will be to remain as calm as possible and try to work with us with as much good grace as possible. That won’t always be possible but we understand. We will understand. And now we have to get going.” With that last statement, Dr Max, the three EMTs, Sara and Grissom loaded into the chopper which lifted off and headed in the direction of Desert Palms.
Sara, Greg and Max were sitting in the break room. Max Carruthers was a Level II CSI from Reno. He had been there for about a month, replacing Sofia Curtis after she left. Sofia could never come to grips with her “demotion” to graveyard. She learned to her sorrow that no one could or should trust Ecklie. Although, she had been a good CSI, no one really missed her.
Grissom came striding into the room. He stopped so abruptly at the door to gaze at Sara that the three CSIs behind him almost ran him down.
“OK, we have multiple DBs on the North Side. Possible gang shootout. Everyone better get their Kevlar vests and everyone is packing tonight. And Swing is joining us to process the scene. We have lots of backup tonight. But keep your eyes open. Right? Let’s go.” As Grissom nodded his head almost imperceptibly towards Sara; the slightest smile threatened the corners of her mouth. It was their signal that she would ride to the crime scene with him. The camaraderie between the two shifts was easy and light even though they all knew that there would be a long arduous night ahead of them.
The atmosphere at the lab had lightened considerably in the last month. Gil Grissom had finally pulled his head from the microscope and made a bold move. He and Sara were now an item. No one was sure why; maybe it was Griss’s approaching 50th birthday, a midlife crisis. Maybe he had finally taken one of Sara’s threats to leave seriously. No one knew but no one really cared because Grissom was almost pleasant at work and even had been heard to crack a few jokes with Greg and Max.
Sara positively glowed from some inner radiance. And more than one wag hinted at the possibility that the Graveyard supervisor and his new girlfriend were expecting. But Sara was just happy, happier than she had been in a long time. As each day passed Sara and Gil, for she called him by his Christian name now, were growing closer and closer. In fact, they had yet to be intimate. Grissom said he waiting for the perfect time to make love to her. *’Maybe tonight,’ Sara thought. ‘Maybe tonight.’*
Neither Sara nor Grissom were aware that tonight would begin their longest journey together.
The Crime Scene
The CSIs had been processing the scene for about an hour when it happened. To this day, Gil himself could not remember what it was that made him act; a noise, that fleeting motion you see out of the corner of your eye, that draws your glance and then your head in a certain direction. Whatever, it was Grissom started yelling at the top of his lungs, “DOWN! EVERYBODY DOWN! TAKE COVER NOW.”
The gang, Los Diablos that had gunned down five members of Los Coyotes had returned to the crime scene. Los Diablos had no love for the LVPD or the CSIs. They had decided to come back and see if they could have some of their own peculiar kind of fun and maybe rack a few more notches on their MAC-10s.
Griss was about fifteen feet from Sara when the first Diablos opened fire. Grissom drew his sidearm sprinted towards Sara, shoved her behind a Tahoe, all the while yelling for everyone to take cover. He opened fire on the gang members as he reversed his direction; knowing that this was sure to draw fire away from Sara and the other CSIs and officers. He almost made it behind another Tahoe.
’Damn’ he thought. It felt like someone had taken a 50-lb. sledge hammer and whacked him on the left thigh. The force of the two MAC-10 bullets that hit his left thigh knocked him backwards covering the last five feet to the Tahoe. His gun skittered away from his hand. He lay stunned on the blacktop like an overturned tortoise. He couldn’t move. He tried to grasp his thigh but the breath was quite knocked from his lungs. All he could do was lie there and wheeze a few caustic curses.
Fortunately, sirens began to wail quite nearby. Brass had had a bad feeling and called for backup moments before Grissom yelled his warning. The Los Diablos SUVs sped off down the street.
“Everyone ok?” Brass yelled. One by one the six CSIs and five LVPD officers began popping up from behind the Tahoes and patrol cars. A general wave of relief swept over his face as he thought they had escaped without any casualties; but then his face turned pale. “Grissom! Grissom, where the hell are you?” Brass bellowed. ‘God Damn the man. Where is he off to?’
He heard a funny wheezing sound off to his right. “Griss” he yelled as he ran over. “Griss, you idiot”. Grissom had managed by this time to drag himself over to the wheel well of the nearest Tahoe. He was sitting up and staring at something near his left thigh.
“Hey, Jim.” Grissom voice wheezed as he nodded towards his thigh. “Watching old faithful. Who knew the old man had so much blood in him.” Brass was ripping the leather belt from his pants as he ran. “Someone throw me a fucking baton. And god damn it call 911. We need Care Flight and tell them to bring plenty of plasma. We got a bleeder.”
One of the officers brought a baton and a couple of blankets over to Brass. Brass quickly made a tourniquet for Grissom’s left leg. 30 seconds on 10 seconds off. Brass muttered to himself. Sara had run up from behind the Tahoe where she had been pushed by Grissom.
“Oh, Gil.” She sobbed. “Oh, Gil”. “Sara, take these blankets and keep him warm. He’s going into shock” Brass managed to get Griss to lie down with his injured leg elevated by a couple of CSI cases. Grissom had almost passed out when they had moved his leg. Brass felt sure that Grissom’s femur was broken. Regardless, he was most concerned about the amount of blood Grissom was loosing. If the Care Flight didn’t arrive soon, Gil would bleed out.
Sara was holding Gil’s hand and talking softly, encouragingly. Grissom was answering back. Brass felt oddly out of place at being witness to such intimacies; but knew both he and Sara were concentrating on keeping Grissom conscious and alive.
Brass sighed in relief as the soft whomp, whomp of helicopter blades grow louder as the Care Flight chopper slowly began descending to the parking lot. As the helicopter touched down several people carrying several cases of equipment jumped out and began to run towards Sara, Grissom and Brass.
“Ok, folks what have we got? Details, now!” The young woman stated brusquely. Brass stared at her momentarily and saw she was not just an EMT but an ER doctor. Brass then reverted to his cop mode, “Gil Grissom, 49 year old male; gunshot wound to the thigh, high velocity bullets about 6 minutes ago,” glancing at his watch. “His blood type is AB -; He’s not allergic to Penicillin but he is to Demerol. They have his records at the hospital. I think his femur is broken.” During this short exchange, one EMT had begun cutting the pants leg on Griss’s left thigh. Another EMT had started two sub clavicle IVs one plasma and the other saline. He had also placed EKG pads on Gil’s chest. The third EMT had placed an oxygen tube around Grissom’s head. The 1st EMT began by packing gauze into the wound on Griss’s thigh and had wrapped a pressure bandage around the thigh.
“Justin, vitals!” Dr. Maxine Carruthers yelled. Brass feeling he had been dismissed stood aside but close enough to monitor the situation. Catherine came up to Brass, just then.
“Jim how is Gil?” her voice breaking slightly.
“It looks bad, Cath. Look, you have to finish processing scene. Sara will go with Griss to the hospital. When all the evidence is logged, you can come to hospital to take any evidence from Grissom. I know we all want to go to hospital, but Gil would want us to do our jobs. So job first. Now go, do it.” Brass sighed.
By now Grissom had been strapped to a backboard, they were about to load him up.
Dr. Max turned to Sara, “You coming with?”
“I thought you wouldn’t let me?”
“I’ve been watching you interact with my patient, you’ve been keeping him calm. I need that. I’m going to be blunt; he’s lost a lot of blood. He may loose that leg. A lot of bad things may happen; so I want to stack the deck in our favor. I’ll let you stay with him as long as I can. So let’s go.”
“Jim, I need a bindle and a pair of scissors” Brass handed the items to Sara who cut a locket of her hair, put it in the small envelope and sealed it with a kiss.
“Maxine, I can call you Maxine?” Sara said. “Can you tape this to his hand? So he can hold on to me even in the OR?”
Even though she had been a doctor, a surgeon and an orthopedic specialist for many years, she had never seen anything like it before and it touched her heart. Dr. Max held out her hand and Sara dropped the bindle in her hand. “Justin, tape.” She snagged the tape one handed knelt down next Grissom.
“Dr. Grissom, look at me.” Gris who was struggling to remain conscious at this point moved his eyes in the direction of her voice. “We are about ready to load up and go to the hospital. You have a very serious injury. I will probably be one of your doctors for the long haul. Your Sara will go us with to the hospital. It’s important that you remain as calm as possible. This…” she said as she held up the small envelope and then began to tape it to the palm of his right hand with surgical tape, “is a very personal gift from Sara to you. No one will take it from you. I want you to hold on to it. Sara can’t be with you every minute. I try to keep her with you as much as I can.”
“Now a lot of things are going to happen once we get to the hospital. Some will be very painful; some will be embarrassing; and quite a few will be very unpleasant. But everyone has a single goal, your survival and your recovery. You job will be to remain as calm as possible and try to work with us with as much good grace as possible. That won’t always be possible but we understand. We will understand. And now we have to get going.” With that last statement, Dr Max, the three EMTs, Sara and Grissom loaded into the chopper which lifted off and headed in the direction of Desert Palms.