TITLE: My Dream

SETTING: After the Season 4 Finale.

EXTENDED SUMMARY: A team member is attacked at a crime scene and while she is recovering, she struggles to accept the fact that her one chance of emotional recovery lies in the heart of a complete stranger... (G/S)

DISCLAIMER: Definitely don't own them.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, this was a weird idea that came to me late at night, much like the boogieman, whispering the plot into my ear. New ending 10/17/04, made it more realistic thanks to that one review by ScienceGeek, who just wants to make it tough for me, lol.

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1- "Rude Awakening"

My dream, I never asked for you, but you came... I never wanted you, but I needed you...

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With a gasp that resonated through the room, Sara Sidle awoke, sweaty, into darkness. She had a dream, such an odd dream, about six sad faces above her, and looking down to see innocent blue eyes...

She rubbed her face with her hands and suddenly felt an odd, odd sensation in her torso, and noticed a weird, tugging feeling in her arm. She took her hand and slowly ran it up her arm to the crook of the elbow. She felt tape... and a needle digging into her arm.

She screamed. She started screaming and didn't stop.

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It was dark when she awoke again. She didn't know how long she had slept, but she remembered figures coming to her room while she was screaming and the shot what felt like ice in her veins, and then she fell back to sleep. She was left with a throbbing headache in the darkness.

She took a deep, calming breath, but it didn't help. She tried to stand up, but she felt weighed down... by weakness? For some reason she felt weak. She slowly started to panic again.

Why am I here? What happened to me?

She felt like a two ton weight was pressing down on her stomach. She started gasping as her heart began to thump painfully in her chest cavity.

Don't scream, please don't scream. Don't panic, please God, don't scream...

But she felt sick. She felt pressure. She couldn't breathe... She started to shake...

I'm alone... I can't breathe...

Right before she let loose to scream again, a hand reached out of the darkness and stroked her forehead. She didn't know who it was, but it immediately broke her scream while it was halfway up her throat. She slowly began to get control of her breathing, and suddenly, another wave of nauseous fatigue washed over her, and she was asleep before she could even ask a question.

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Catherine opened the door to the hospital room number 6793 and was greeted by a familiar sight: a broken Gil Grissom sitting on the right side of the beautiful, sleeping Sara. He sat in the exact same position as before, grasping onto her cold, limp hand, staring at her blank face. It was still dark, but the sun was just beginning to rise. Grissom didn't even look up to see Catherine enter.

"How long have you been here?" She asked, and he didn't need to answer her for her to know he had been there for over a day, waiting.

"She awoke last night, and she had another panic attack. She fell right back to sleep. It's good, because I don't know how bad it would be to sedate her again."

Catherine took a seat next to the bed and said, "She looks so peaceful."

"I miss the fire behind her eyes..." Grissom said sadly, then immediately noticed what he said and straightened up, as if to erase the moment of actual emotion.

"Cath?" It was Sara, and Catherine paused for a moment, as if to make sure she wasn't dreaming, then bent over the bed and said, "Yes, Sara, it's me."

"Oh my God, Catherine, why am I here? I feel weird."

Catherine paused for a moment, and said, "Well, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I had a dream... a long dream... about these innocent blue eyes..." It was at that moment she noticed Catherine's voice and the hand that was grasping her hands didn't match up.

"Gil?" She asked quietly, almost afraid that she was imagining him there, but he answered her with a squeeze of her hand and said, "Good morning."

She hated the fact that she immediately felt comforted by Gil's presence. She hated he had so much emotional control over her. She hated the fact he was so far away...

"What happened to me?"

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"Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find you've collected nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays." -Harold Hill ("The Music Man")