Greg was tired as hell. He had been filling his life with work, working doubles as often as he could. The lonliness has taken over since he and Cassie had broken up. They had only been together 2 months and he had known wouldn't last so it wasn't a shock when she called to tell him she had met someone else someone who could spend time with her. Greg hadn't been in love with her but he had enjoyed the female company. It was something he missed when he was single.
His problem was always the same, he would meet someone and realise that they were not for him, well not so much "not for him" but more not who he wanted and it would end. He hadn't had a relationship that lasted longer than 3 months in years. The last person was Katie. She was the love of his life that he had met when he first got to Vegas. They dated for almost 3 years and were talking about getting married and having kids when the lab explosion happened. Something inside Greg had changed and he found himself pushing Katie away after that. He didn't want her to see his scars; he didn't want her to pity him and most of all he didn't want her to be stuck with a failure like him.
Work had always kept him going after she left him and moved away. The way he treated her ensured that he never heard from her again, she changed her number and the friends they shared spent less time with him and he knew it was because he had broken her heart. They were meant to be together, he knew it now, hell, he had known it all along but the exposion had hurt more than his skin, he had lost all confidence in himself.
Greg curled into a tight ball under the covers and willed himself to sleep just so he could have a break from his brain.
Greg and the rest of the CSI's were on a team-building exercise in the mountainous forest area of Toiyabe, there would be hiking and camping and no luxuries. The weather was getting progressively worse as the team drove up and parked their trucks. It took an hour to follow the maps to their campground. Greg and Nick lagged behing Catherine, Ray and Sara chatting about life. By the time they had caught up it was getting dark and as they set up their tents it started to rain heavily. Nick, Greg and Ray shared a tent as did Catherine and Sara. They had no shelter on the side of a mountain and during the night the tents started to suffer. The men , who had somehow managed to all fall asleep were woken by the sounds of Catherine shrieking. Nick was the first out of the tent with his pistol in hand and laughed when he found a very wet looking Catherine standing in her night clothes in the middle of the campground, while Sara chased their tent.
"Stop laughing and do something Nick before I freeze to death" Catherine squealed at him and he pulled his sweatshirt off and handed it to Cath. Nick then decided to help Sara chase the tent and took off in her direction. Catherine clambered into the tent with Greg as Ray went out to help Sara and Nick.
"Thanks for the help Greg." Catherine snapped as she seated herself beside Gregs curled up body. She watched as he shrugged his shoulders under the sleeping bag and said "Nick's got it covered I have to hold our tent down!"
Ten minutes later it was a different story as Greg stumbled out of the tent which was now uprooted from his holding in the ground and half way across the campsite. He was greeted by the sounds of his teammates laughter as he tried to untangle his legs from the zipper of the door. He finally regained his balance in time to watch the tent blow through the trees and into the darkness. The team let out a collective sigh as they began gathering their belongings and started back down the mountainside towards their trucks so that they could begin the journey home.
"Some team building exercise." Sara snapped as she trudged back the way they had come only hours previously.
Catherine and Ray were walking up ahead when they saw that the road had been flooded and they suddenly realised that theycouldn't get any further. The river had burst its banks and now Nick was starting to worry. They were out in the middle of nowhere, miles from their cars which were now inaccessible. They didn't have any food since that had blown away with the tents. Catherine and Ray looked at each other with raised eyebrows wondering how they were going to get back.
Nick took out his binoculars and took a look around. He could see the lights of a house in the distance and it was decided that they would go there for help. As they got closer they could see it was a well kept two storey house with a patio stretching the entire length of it. As they approached the house Catherine and Sara decided they should go to the door and the rest of the team could wait at the bottom of the steps so as not to alarm whoever answered the door. They rang the bell and the porch light came on. A minute passed before the door opened a crack and they saw a redheaded woman standing inside looking slightly worried.
"Can I help you?" She asked tentatively as she surveying the group of people stnading outside her house at 3am.
"Hey, I'm sorry for disturbing you, we have been stranded. We were wondering if you had a phone we could use to call for help. Our cars are at the camp station and the river has flooded the roads, we lost our tents to the wind and rain a while ago." Catherine was trying to explain without shouting over the noise of the wind.
"I do have a phone but I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere soon. The river has flooded the road and bush for at least 8 miles around. No one will be able to get through for a day or two."
"What!" Catherine almost screamed. "What the hell are we going to do"?
The woman closed the door to release the chain lock and opened it wide and told them all to come in.
"Are you sure you don't mind, there are 6 of us." Sara asked concerned that they might be a burden.
"No, now come on in out of the cold and rain." The redhead smiled at each of them as they walked in dripping rain and leaves through the entrance hall.
They all went in one at a time and congregated in the sitting room in front of the fire while making introductions. Greg excused himself to go to the bathroom and when he came back he saw an extra person had joined the group.
She had her back to him until Michelle went to introduce them. She turned and her smile froze. It seemed like time stopped and the two of them just stared at one another for a few seconds before he heard her almost whisper "Greg?"
Greg's mind went numb and no thoughts ran through it, he couldn't speak, getting embarassed for himself he just turned around and left the house.
Michelle turned and looked at her friend quizzically "Katie is that who I think it is?"
"Yes" Katie burst into tears before turning and bounding up the stairs leaving the entire team wondering what just happened.