Attachment

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

Summary: As Greg and Sara's relationship develops, not only Greg wonders if he can trust her, but Sara does as well, when an uncanny familiar case makes her question what lies inside her. SaraGreg

Rating: T

A/N: This is a sequel of 'Hidden Damages' and 'Retrieval'.

'Attachment' is set three months after 'Retrieval', and the first bit will primarily deal with what happened in this time span.

Thanks to Emmithar for betareading. :D

Chapter 1: Sara remembers

It was around noon when Sara left the lab, strode over the parking lot and climbed into her car. For a moment she considered going home, but turned into the direction of another part of town instead, and it did not take her long to reach her destination. She searched her bag briefly for the key to the apartment, before she walked in quietly and pulled off her shoes, tiptoeing then into the living room, finding it empty as she had expected.

Sara was about to enter the bedroom when doubts came up in her, if it was not rude to just come into the house like this. Come even into the bed actually. It was not her apartment after all.

Suppressing her doubts, Sara walked quietly into the bedroom and undressed quickly, watching the sleeping figure in the bed. Then she climbed onto the mattress next to him, crawling below the blanket, facing him. She had just made herself comfortable, when she noticed that her intention to not wake him had failed, as Greg was looking at her sleepily.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have come…"

"I like it that you did," Greg said softly, reaching out to her. Sara came a bit closer so that Greg could lay his arm around her back.

"You can come any time… that's what the key is for," he underlined.

Sara did not answer, but closed her eyes, remembering the first time she had stayed at Greg's place three months ago.

The sun had not gone up yet when Sara stopped the car. They weren't early off shift, but had not really been working that night at all, Greg not anyway, since it was only his first night back in Las Vegas after the abduction; the only reason he had stayed that long in the lab at all was that he had wanted to wait for Nick and Warrick.

Now Sara looked at the man who was sitting in the passenger's seat of her car.

"Thanks for giving me a lift," he smiled. "Brass said I should have my car back soon."

Sara nodded quietly. It was still too good to be true that Greg was actually sitting there next to her.

"You're welcome," she blurted then out, reminding herself of that polite response.

Greg seemed to hesitate briefly. "Can you … stay?"

"Greg, I don't think that's a good idea."

"I don't mean it like that," he ensured her quickly.

"I think we should take it slowly."

Greg laid a hand on her arm. "And I think we should've done something already months ago."

Sara was silent. As if to busy herself she turned off the engine and took the key off, fiddling around with it in her hands.

"No, it was right, that we didn't do anything months ago. You were completely right."

"But what's now?" Greg paused. "I don't really want to stay alone today," he explained then and Sara looked at him frowning. He knew that he could have asked her anything this day; she had been afraid for him, was highly relieved that he was back safe and sound, and now he did not want to stay alone.

"Okay," she agreed slowly.

Greg smiled. "I'll take the couch and-"

"No, you don't," Sara said clearly. "If I stay, I'll take the couch. You'll sleep in your bed. You didn't have a place to sleep for the last days."

Greg had to admit that she was right. The last four nights he had been forced to sleep on the passenger's seat of a car, and he was truly longing for his own comfortable bed.

Some minutes later they were standing in his apartment. Sara was still in her jacket and looking as if she still did not consider it a good idea for her to stay.

"Want something to drink?" he asked, almost shrugging. Sara shook her head.

"Well, if you change your mind, just help yourself," he offered, pointing to the kitchen. He left her alone briefly, returning after a minute with a pillow and a blanket out of the bedroom. He laid both of them on the couch, noticing that Sara had at least taken off her jacket by now.

Sara saw that he was tired and it was completely understandable, after all that he had gone through, sleeping probably very little during that time. She decided that she should not keep him from sleeping any longer. So she walked over to his couch, sitting down on it, and smiled weakly.

"Good night, Greg."

His smile was broad. "Good night, Sara," he replied, before he walked into his bedroom, leaving the door to it open.

It had been the first night of many by now that she had stayed at his place, but still she was hesitant to just turn up and let herself in, especially when he was not there or when he was sleeping, knowing that she would not have liked this kind of intruding into her home as simply as Greg did.

Sara opened her eyes again and saw that Greg had fallen asleep again. She was glad about it. He had not always slept well in the past months; the happenings of three months ago were still haunting him sometimes. Altogether he was doing fine, better than one would have expected, but in his sleep he could not always escape the memories.

Sara had had to realize that already the first time she had stayed.

She slept better than she had done in any of the previous nights, now that the fear was gone, but still she rested only for a couple of hours. When she got up, she saw the door to the bedroom still standing open. She took a look into the room and found Greg lying in his bed, awake, which made her wonder if he had been lying awake the whole time, despite his tiredness. She would not have been surprised.

"Are you checking on me?" he asked smiling.

"Maybe," she admitted, smiling back weakly. She was about to close the bedroom door, telling him to get his rest, when he stopped her.

"I've been awake the whole time."

It was what Sara had been afraid of. She looked around in the room, wondering what to do, what to say.

"I had hoped it would help that I stay," she said helplessly.

"Me too."

Some hours ago, back at the lab, Greg had appeared calm, had been joking around, had obviously been dealing surprisingly well with all that had happened, even though he had mentioned that it was affecting him, but right now it showed that things were not so easy.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," Greg shrugged. "I guess I'll be able to sleep again in time… I mean it's only one day ago that it's over… I can't expect that everything's back to normal by now… That's why I asked you to stay…," he rambled on. Sara had been hesitant to stay at all, but now she could not stop herself from walking over to him, after she had closed the door behind her, and sitting down on the bed next to him.

"Do you want me to stay here?" she asked quietly. Greg did not answer, but looked at her pleadingly and Sara took this as a positive answer. She laid down next to him, taking his hand in hers, avoiding physical contact apart from that, hoping that Greg would be calmed down so much that he would be able to sleep.

Greg grimaced. "That's not exactly calming for me, you know."

Sara lifted her head and looked at him, frowning.

"How can I be calm when you're lying in bed with me?" he specified.

"You should sleep." Sara propped herself on her arms, leaning over to Greg, and planted a kiss on his lips, any plans on redeveloping their relationship slowly obviously gone, not that Greg had ever been in favor of that.

Greg had taken her into his arms after that, and soon they both had fallen asleep, although Greg still had not been able to sleep much on that day.

Things had improved until now, three months later, and Sara was grateful for it. She had not been sure if she could give Greg the comfort he needed, although Greg had seemed to think so.

She had been called cold and detached in the past, and although she knew herself that she most certainly was not, even though she had sometimes tried to be like it, sometimes wishing she could be like Grissom and feel nothing, she had been worried Greg might experience her that way and miss the warmth and comfort he was searching in a relationship.

At least physically there was not a problem. Greg had always been very keen on any physical contact; every "night" she had spent at his place had been very snugly, not that Sara was opposed to it. But in any other aspect of their relationship Sara still did not know if she could give Greg what he wanted, or needed, wondering from time to time if she was not too focused on herself and her problems for it and was just not made for any long-lasting relationship.

And sometimes she doubted that Greg would really want to have everything she could give and everything that came with it, if he really knew every facet of her.

TBC