A/N: I wrote this a few weeks ago for the Sandle Halloween challenge at LJ. Therefore, a belated Halloween fic now.

The Right Atmosphere

What she expected at Halloween: people dressed in weird costumes (even more so than usual in Las Vegas), odd grimaces in the form of pumpkins staring at her, massive amounts of candy corn, and the one or other joke from either Greg or Hodges in a probably failing attempt to scare her. Also, some bodies might vanish mysteriously…

What she had not expected was to find Greg sitting in the break room at the lab, half a dozen pumpkins in different sizes spread on the table in front of him. Why had she not expected it? Because he was actually supposed to be working? At the very most, she had not expected to see the cheery, eager expression in his face, while he was cutting out pumpkins. Sara smiled.

She entered the room, and he did not even seem to notice her, so absorbed was he. She considered playing a trick on him for a moment, but decided against it, as she did not want this to turn into a bloody festival, seeing the sharp knife he was using to cut out grimaces.

"Having fun?" she asked innocently instead. Greg still started a bit, but looked up to her then, smiling.

"Yeah, I really like this."

"Don't you-," Sara started.

"-have anything to do?" Greg completed her question, while he finished his work on a tiny pumpkin.

"So, do you?" Sara asked, sitting down and taking one of Greg's lanterns into her hands.

"Nope. You?" Greg returned the question, reaching for the last pumpkin that did not have a grimace yet.

Sara shook her head.

"Oh, then you can help me," Greg decided. "You can make some decorations. I've already cut out some forms, but you can take the sandpaper over there to smooth the edges, and then you can paint-"

"Greg! I can't-," Sara stopped, when Greg turned his head to her again, looking at her quietly with a big smile. She reached for the sandpaper.

Sara had just started to rub the paper along the edges of Greg's ghost-shaped decoration, when they could hear the unmistakable sound of both their cell phones. Greg grumbled something disappointedly, but there was no way out of it: five minutes later they were on the road to their newest crime scene.

They drove out of the city, and Sara could not suppress a chuckle, when fog grew denser along the road. Greg looked at her, grinning and rolling his eyes.

"That's the right atmosphere, isn't it?"

Sara pursed her lips. "This is better not going to grow heavier, or we won't be able to see the crime scene."

Greg leaned back. "I see us wandering through the fog, deathly silence all around us, and suddenly-"

Sara braked hard, and Greg cried out. The car came to a stop, and Sara turned the wheel sharply to the left. "I had almost missed the turn," she explained while Greg laughed nervously.

She maneuvered the car onto the narrow road, and the drive went on, slower now. Soon they could make out lights not far ahead of them, and Sara reduced the speed even more, until she came to a halt next to a police car. She tried to find a good parking space but had to acknowledge that there was not really something like a good parking space on the muddy side of the road.

They got out of the car, and while Greg retrieved both their kits from the trunk, Sara went ahead to meet the officer who was in charge of the scene. She did not recognize the man who was walking up to her. He wore a grim expression.

"I'm sorry," he started the conversation very unexpectedly.

Sara frowned. "Why?"

"There's no body," the man replied matter-of-factly.

"There's no body?" Sara echoed. "But… there has to be!" she stated firmly, aware that the slight eagerness that sounded in her voice had to come across as odd for any other person.

"I know it sounds strange, but there was a body when it was called in, but it's gone now," the officer explained, and Sara looked at him unbelieving, guessing he was playing a trick on her. Decidedly, she brushed past him towards the place that was marked off with black-yellow tape, clearly marking the scene that was supposed to contain a body. Sara bent under the tape, and stopped on the scene. On the empty scene that was, for there was indeed no dead body to see. Sara looked over the entire fenced-off area, both confusedly and suspiciously.

She did not find any signs that there had indeed been a body, and was just about to turn around to walk back to the officer, when she was touched on her shoulder, startling her.

"Oh, sorry Sara, I didn't want to scare you," Greg apologized. "At least not unintentionally… somehow this didn't make sense… anyway… boooooh!" he bellowed suddenly, making Sara jump slightly because of the noise.

She lifted her eyebrows. "What was that about?"

Greg smirked. "Well, I scared you, when I didn't want to, so I wanted to make sure to do it right now, you know."

Sara laughed, shaking her head at him. "Come, there's no body for us here."

They made their way back to the car, noticing that the police officer had apparently already left. Greg jumped into the driver's seat before Sara could say anything. They drove off, but had not even reached the main road again, when the car started making unwelcome sounds.

Sara rolled her eyes. This couldn't be happening. All too soon though, the car came to a stop, and all lights went out.

Sara sighed. "I guess we should get out of here, put up the warning triangle, call for help…"

"Yeah," Greg agreed, and opened the door on his side. Sara got off the car as well, and while Greg walked got the triangle out of the trunk and walked away to put it up in a good distance, Sara called not only a towing service, but also the lab to tell them what was going on.

When she was finished, she looked into the direction where Greg had vanished. He came back jogging after a minute, opening the trunk again, much to Sara's wondering. A few moments later he came up to her, carrying the tiny pumpkin he had cut out at the lab. She saw that also had a candle and matches with him.

"Can you hold this, please?" he asked, handing her the pumpkin.

"What are you doing?" Sara asked, although she knew the answer, while he lit the candle.

"I guess while we're waiting for the towing service, we could complete the atmosphere, don't you think?" He took the pumpkin from her hands, and set the candle inside, finishing the jack-o-lantern.

Sara looked smiling at the peculiar face that she could see in the shine of the light, out there at the side of the road, while the fog around them seemed to have a field day.

"Happy Halloween, Greg."