Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or any of the characters from the show.
A/N: This is a re - post of the original version. I have fixed some spelling errors that the story had before. This is story is a Greg/Sara ship. I know, normally i'm a Nick/Sara shipper but I do like Sandle too. This is a oneshot. Please let me know what ya'll think.
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Greg had grown up a lot since he'd started working at the crime lab in Las Vegas. When Greg was just working in the lab, he would sometimes act more like a child then someone his own age, but once he started working actual crime scenes, he matured quickly.
At first, crime scenes were almost too much for Greg to handle, he would often find himself getting very emotional, but as time passed, he finally started to get used to seeing the horrible scenes where crimes had been commited. Greg thought he had finally found a way to push his emotions aside and do his job, because he needed to be putting all of his thoughts into solving the crime, not getting all emotional.
Tonight was different though. Greg had walked into a crime scene that hit far too close to home. A mother had murdered her younger son. No doubt her older son would have met the same fate, except he faught back. He used a butcher knife to try protecting his little brother and himself. When his mother come at him with the gun she'd used to murder his little brother, the boy was left with no choice but to use the knife he held.
As Greg entered the home, he walked torwards the kitchen were Sara was already processing the scene. When Greg walked through the kitchen doorway, it was like walking into his past, a past that he'd tried very hard to put behind him.
Blood was splattered all over the kitchen floor and walls. A woman's body lay on the floor, a gun lay near her hand. The body of a young boy lay a couple feet from the woman, he was covering his face with his hands.
" Hey Greg, " Sara said, looking up at the young CSI.
" Hey, what happened here? " Greg asked in a strange tone of voice.
" Looks like the mother shot her son, then was killed, " Sara replied.
" Uh... do you have any idea who killed the mother? " Greg asked.
" The older son, " Sara said.
" Older son? " Greg almost whispered.
" Yeah, we think he was trying to protect himself or his brother, but I haven't actually spoke with him, yet. He's pretty upset, right now, " Sara explained.
Sara looked up at Greg and noticed that he seemed to be very upset. Tears were threatening to fall from his eyes, and he looked as if her were about to break down.
" Greg, are you alright? " Sara asked softly.
Greg didn't hear her, his mind had taken him back to another place and time. One that he had worked so hard trying to forget.
" I'm... i'm really sorry, mom! I didn't mean to get mud on the floor... I... I forgot to take off my boots. I'm sorry! " little Tommy Sanders sobbed.
" You forgot? You forgot! How many times have I told you not to walk on my clean floor with your muddy boots on! " Mrs. Sanders shouted.
" I know mom... but I... I forgot. I'm really sorry. I'll never ever do it again. Please just don't hit me, " Tommy pleaded.
" Well young man, this time i'm really going to teach you a lesson! I am so damn tired of you boys! You both were a mistake to begin with. You never should have been born, " Mrs. Sanders shouted as she headed into her bedroom, returning with her gun in hand.
" Mommy? W What are you going to do with that... Mommy? M Mommy! " Tommy whimpered.
His mother didn't answer him, instead she just lifted the gun and pointed at the 6 year old's head. That's when 10 year old Greg emerged from the closet where he'd been hiding.
" No... no mom! Please... please don't! " Greg pleaded.
Mrs. Sanders didn't pay any attention to Greg at all. Instead she stepped closer to the little boy who stood shaking with fear before her.
" Please d don't, mommy! Please! " Tommy pleaded.
When young Tommy saw his mother put her finger on the trigger, he raised his shaking hands up to shield his face. And then... without warning, she pulled the trigger.
Blood spattered the when the bullet hit the young child at close range, and then boy lay on the floor in a pool of blood.
Greg just stood there, frozen in fear for a moment. He could not believe what had just taken place before him. Tommy, his little brother now lay dead on the floor. Murdered at the hands of his own mother.
Suddenly, a wave a guilt went through Greg. He had just stood there and watched his mother kill his younger brother... because he was afraid for himself but he was supposed to look after his little brother, to protect him. And now he'd let him down.
Then, Greg's attention was pulled back to his mother once again, for she was now pointing her gun, the same gun she had just murdered his younger brother with moments ago, at Greg's head.
" No... no... ma, " Greg pleaded with his mother. " Please don't! "
But it was clear that Mrs. Sanders was going to do the same thing she had just done to little Tommy, only this time, it would be Greg's life that would be taken.
Greg was frozen in fear, but then he realised that he would have to act fast. He scanned the kitchen for something, anything that he could use to protect himself. The closest thing to him were his mother's butcher knifes. So Greg quickly pulled a large knife from the counter top.
" Please mom, please put down the gun. Please! " Greg pleaded through his tears.
" How dare you pull a knife on me boy! " Mrs. Sanders shouted and placed her finger on the trigger of the gun.
Mrs. Sanders was just about to pull the trigger when Greg stabbed her, once in the chest. She quickly fell to the floor and Greg wasted no time in getting the phone and calling 911... but it was too late. Greg's little brother had died instantly and his mother died from her chest wound before the ambulance arrived. When the EMTs did arrive, they found young Greg Sanders sitting on the floor, sobbing with the lifeless body of his dead little brother in his arms.
Greg was finally brought back to the current when he felt a hand lightly touch his sholder.
" Greg? Greg are you alright? " Sara asked, it was clear by her voice that she was concerned.
Greg looked up at her suddenly. Sara could see the pain he was feeling in his tear filled eyes. Something was very wrong.
" Uh... S Sara... I... I can't... I just can't work this case... you... you're going have to find someone else. I... I... have to go, " Greg studdered and then he darted out the door.
Sara tried to run after him, but by the time she made it out of the house, Greg was already driving away.
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After Sara finished at the crime scene, she went straight to the lab, only to discover that Greg had never returned. Now, Sara was really worried, the only other place she thought Greg might have went was to his apartment. Sara had never been to Greg's place before but Grissom had his address on file, so after explaining what happened with Greg, Grissom gave Sara the address and asked her to let him know if Greg was alright.
Sara drove as fast as she possibly could in the city, until she finally reached Greg's apartment building. Sara quickly headed inside, she ran down the long hallway until she found Greg's apartment number.
Sara stopped and knocked on the door. There was no sound of movement coming from the apartment, so Sara tried again.
" Greg, it's me... Sara. I just want to make sure you're alright, " Sara called.
Still, no one came to the door, so Sara decided to see if the apartment door was locked... it wasn't. Sara slowly entered the apartment. It was dark inside, all the lights were off, and she was starting to think that Greg wasn't home when she heard a strange sound coming from another room.
" Greg, " Sara called again, but still got no answer.
Sara opened the door to the room where the noise had come from, and there before her was Greg. The young CSI was sitting in a fetal posistion on his bedroom floor, leaning against his bed, sobbing. A almost empty bottle of hard stuff sat beside him.
" Greg, are you alright? " Sara asked softly as she sat down next to Greg.
" Go away, Sara. Please just go away and leave me alone. I just... I want to be alone, " Greg said bitterly.
Sara didn't listen, instead she placed her hand on Greg's sholder. She could feel his body shaking with sobs.
" What's wrong, Greg? What happened at the crime scene today, that made you this upset? " Sara asked softly.
" I... I d don't want to talk about it, " Greg snarled.
" Come on, Greg. I'm your friend, you know that. You can talk to me, i'll understand, " Sara said, softly.
" No, you won't understand! No one does, " Greg replied bitterly.
The bitter tone in Greg's voice frightened Sara a little, for never in all the time she'd known Greg, had he ever spoke in such a cold, bitter tone.
" You don't know that I won't understand, Greg. Please, tell me what's got you so upset, " Sara said.
Greg started to sob even harder, now.
" Walking into that crime scene today... it... it was like walking into the past, " Greg cried. " When... when I was a 10... t that's when it happened.
" What happened, Greg? " Sara asked softly.
" My... my little brother... he... he walked through the kitched with his boots on again. My... my mother... she... she got mad at him ... she... she had beat us both before... for doing the same thing, " Greg said. " I'm sorry, " he whispered as he broke down completely.
" Shh... it's alright, " Sara said, pulling Greg into her embrace.
Greg placed his head on Sara's sholder, crying so hard his whole body shook.
" That day... that day she was really mad... and she... she g got her g gun, " Greg said.
Sara swallowed hard. She hoped that this wasn't going where it sounded like it was going, for both Greg's sake and her own.
" She... she pointed the gun... she pointed it at m my b brother. He begged her not to do it. I begged her not to do it... but it was too late. She... she shot him... she shot him for getting damn mud on the floor! " Greg sobbed.
Sara held Greg tightly in her arms, she was in total shock by what the young CSI had just told her.
" I... I just stood there. It was like... like I just couldn't move. Then she... she pointed the gun towards me... and I... I begged her to put it down... she just... she wouldn't! " Greg said. " So I... I picked up a butcher knife. I t told her to... to put the gun down, but she wouldn't. She... she was going to kill me too... She... she started to pull the trigger so I... I stabbed her with the knife. It only hit her once... I... I thought it would just wound her enough to keep her from... from... killing me... until the police got there. But she... she d died, "
" It wasn't your fault, Greg. You had to protect yourself, " Sara said softly.
" No, it was my fault! I... I killed my own mother... and I... I let her kill my little brother, " Greg sobbed. " That... that little guy... he looked up to me. He trusted me... and I let him down! "
" No Greg, you were just a child. You didn't know what to do. It was not your fault, " Sara told him.
" I... I should have done something more, "
" What Greg, what could have you done? " Sara asked. " If your mother killed your brother, she would have done the same thing to you had you have tried to stand in her way. So what could you have done? "
" I... I don't know, " Greg said so low that it was almost a whisper.
They sat there silently for a moment, until Greg pulled from Sara's embrace, pulled his knees tightly to his chest.
" There was so much blood... it was just... I can't even discribe it, "
" I... I understand how you feel, Greg, " Sara said.
" How? How can you possibly understand how I feel? " Greg asked.
Sara's eyes filled up with tears, for besides Grissom, no one knew about her past. No one.
" Because... because my mother murdered my father in front of me, " Sara spat out quickly.
Greg's head shot up, he was totally shocked. Greg had never figured that something like that had happened, that Sara had been through something like that too.
" I'm sorry, " Greg said softly, reaching over taking Sara's hand in his.
" Yeah well, it was a long time ago... and I... I don't like talking about it. But I just want you to know... I understand, " Sara said, wiping some stray tears from her eyes.
Sara couldn't believe that Greg had been through so much in his young life. Greg had always been a happy, fun person at the lab, so she never expected that he'd been through so much.
" Greg, why didn't you tell us this before? " Sara asked.
Greg looked up at Sara and said, " Some things are best left behind, "
End.
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