"God, I am exhausted." Sara moans, fingerprinting the cabinets. I grin up at her from my spot on the floor.
"Stay up late listening to the scanner again, Sidle?" She glares at me.
"Go to hell, Sanders." I grin and continue to analyze the blood spatter from the triple homicide. A mother, father, and their son. "So, David said it looked like one bullet shot both the mother and father?" I nod and she furrows her eyebrows, thinking. "Well, if someone I loved was about to be shot, I would jump in front of them. If the mother was a through and through, maybe she jumped in front of her husband?"
"Makes sense. But what about the son? I mean, would you just stand there while your son was beaten to death?" She opens her mouth to answer me, but before she can, a man wearing all black storms into the room.
"Put your hands up!" Sara and I quickly do.
"Sir, can you just put the gun down?" I ask. Maybe trying to reason with a deranged possible killer wasn't smart, but I'm Greg Sanders. Most things I do aren't smart.
"You want to die, kid?" He tells me. "Well, your going to. You're going to die, and then I'm going to have some fun with your lady friend over there." Sara eyes flash with anger, then fear, as the man pulls the trigger, the gun aimed at me. She jumps in front of me before the bullet can connect with my flesh. The bullet goes straight through her chest, and she falls to the floor. The man pauses in shock, and I use those few seconds to shoot him. He collapses, hitting the ground with a thud. I quickly kneel down in the blood pool next to Sara, trying to get a pulse. I can't. A sharp pain in my side forces me to look down at the rapidly bleeding hole in my abdomen. My eyelids flutter, and then, the world goes black.
X-X-X
I open my eyes to see a dark sky dotted with more stars then I've ever seen in my life. It's the kind of sky you never see in Vegas, where lights make it impossible to get a good view of the stars. Around me, a beautiful bay reflecting the night sky stretches into lush, green mountains. I stand at the end of a dock that seems to stretch out for miles.
"Hey, Greg." Besides me, Sara Sidle stands, looking out at the bay, grinning. Her yellow dress reaches the ground, and it whips out behind her along with her hair, dancing in the wind.
"Never though I'd see you in a dress, Ms. Sidle." Her grin grows bigger. She looks happier than I've ever seen her. She sits down, her bare feet dangling into the water. Looking down, I notice I have bare feet too, so I follow the suit. "Am I right when I guess were not in Vegas anymore?" She nods, and her grin seems to shine brighter than all the stars in the sky.
"We are in Tomales Bay, California, where I grew up." She stares up at the night sky. "I missed this sky when I was in Vegas, Greg. You can see every single star. Beautiful, isn't it?" I nod, and she kicks her feet with almost childlike enthusiasm.
"I've never seen you like this." I say, and she looks at me, brown eyes sparkling.
"Like what?"
"This happy."
"Well, I missed this place, Greg. It's only nine hours from Vegas, but I haven't been back since I moved there."
"Never pegged Ms. Sara Sidle as a California girl."
"What? Of course I am. My parents were total hippies, ran a Bed and Breakfast. My middle name's Sunshine, you know." I crack up, and she smacks my arm.
"Sara Sunshine Sidle? Really?" She grins.
"Like Gregory Hojem Sanders is much better." I smile at her. "You know, when I grew up here, we would always go swimming late at night."
"Then why don't you go swimming?" She shakes her head vigorously.
"Are you kidding? No way! You, however, are a different story." She grins and pushes me in the water. The cold water hits me like a ton of bricks, but I still laugh underwater. I emerge from under, only to find her cracking up. "The look on your face, G!" I wipe the smile of my face and put on a scowl.
"Are you going to help me up, or what?" She extends her hand, and I pull her into the water with me. She stays under for a few seconds, before coming up, giggling. The yellow dress floats around her, but she ignores it.
"Good one." I pull myself back up onto the dock, and she does the same. "Hey, Greg?"
"Yeah, Sunshine?" She hits my shoulder, smiling. But her expression soon becomes somber.
"I'm here. You just need to find me." Her statement strikes me as odd, but before I can think it over, she disappears. Slowly, the world around me fades with her.
X-X-X
"Sara…" I mutter, opening my eyes.
"Greg!" Catherine pounces me, tears rolling down her face. "Oh god, Greg, we were so worried! We didn't think you would wake up!" I look around the room. Nick and Warrick stand on either side of me, smiling, but with sadness. Grissom sits awkwardly on a chair of in the corner.
"Where's Sara?" I ask, and everyone exchanges glances. "And where am I?"
"Desert Palms." Grissom says.
"Why?"
"Well, you've been in a coma for 9 days. There was an accident." Nick says, closing his eyes. "A man shot you at a crime scene." Panic rises in my body.
"So where's Sara? She wasn't hurt, was she?" Warrick puts his arm around Catherine as a few tears run down her face. The memories are coming back to me now, but I refuse to believe them. "Where is she?" My voice is nearing a yell.
"She jumped in front of you, Greg. The bullet would have killed you, but she prevented it from hitting your heart." Warrick says. "She died on impact."
"No! I shout. "No! That's impossible! I just talked to her! She can't be dead! She can't!" But the memories have returned, clear as day. The sound her body made when it hit the floor, the blood pool, her empty eyes. How was this possible? I had just talked to her. We were in Tomales Bay together.
"I'm so sorry, G." Nick whispers.
"Hospital said you could go home as soon as you woke up. I'll go fill out the papers." Grissom says, walking out of the room, sadness in his words.
"She can't be dead. I just talked to her! She was in Tomales Bay! We went swimming, and she was wearing a yellow dress!" Warrick, Nick, and Catherine look at me. I realize my words are making no sense. None of this makes sense. But I continue to talk, trying to make sense of it all."She said she was here, that I needed to find her!"
"Greg, you just woke up. Your probably confused. You should go home and rest." I nod numbly. A nurse comes in and takes few IV's out of my body, giving me instructions on what I can and cannot do. I don't hear a word of it. I follow Catherine into my car, and stare out into space as she drops me off at my apartment. I unlock the door and stumble in, collapsing on my bed. Everything is a blur. I try to think, but instead, I find myself falling into a deep sleep.
X-X-X
"What's up, Sanders?" I spin around to face Sara. She grins at me, her hair pulled back in a bun with two chopsticks. She wears another dress, this one pink silk with a Chinese design style, hugging her curves and stopping at her knees. The flowers on it remind me of an Asian dress Catherine once wore to a party.
"Where are we this time? China?" Tiny shops with Chinese lettering on them crowd the cobblestone street. Tied between lampposts, chinese lantern dangle above them. The whole place smells faintly of fish.
"Close. Chinatown in San Francisco. Did you know it's the oldest in North America? And it has the largest Chinese community outside of Asia. My brother used to take me here for Dim Sum." She smiles at me and begins to walk. "You coming?" I take a few strides before matching her pace.
"I'm confused."
"By what?"
"Your supposed to be dead." She turns her head to face me.
"Nothing is ever as it seems, Sanders. I though you would have learned that after this job." She grins and leads me into an empty shop, where souvenirs and knickknacks line the shelves.
"Sara, why did you disappear on me?"
"I had my own battles to fight, Greg."
"What battles?" She sighs and refuses to meet my eyes.
"I can't say, Greg. I'm so sorry." I want to ask more questions, but the expression on her face stops me. Instead, I put and "I 3 SF" hat on my head. She smiles at me, grabbing my hand and pulling me into another store.
"Wait, don't I need to pay for this?" I ask her, and she laughs.
"We're the only people here, Greg! Of course not." I just shrug as we walk into a store filled with all kinds of fish. I accidentally brush against a dead one.
"Gross! What is this place?"
"Fish shop." She taps on the glass of a crowded fish take, startling the giant salmon living inside. "They sell both live and dead fish for food. Not to mention crabs, lobsters, turtles, and…" She reaches into a bucket. "Frogs." She takes a big one out of the blue bucket and places it on my head.
"Get it off me! Get it off me! Get it off me!" I run around the store, accidentally bumping into a crab tank. One of the crabs takes the opportunity to grab my nose. I shriek and Sara doubles over in hysterics. She pries the crab and frog off me, while I scowl at her.
"You scream like a girl," She informs me through her laughter. I smile in spite of myself, rubbing my hurt nose.
"Can we leave this place now?" She grins and leads me back out onto the cobblestone street, laying down in the middle of it. I shrug and do the same. She grabs my hand, and we look up at the foggy San Francisco sky.
"I love this place." She smiles serenely, watching as a tiny bit of sunshine peaks out through the fog.
"Sara?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to leave me again?" She sighs and looks at me.
"I wish I could say no, but yes, I have to. But Greg, you need to do something for me." I stare into her chocolate eyes.
"Anything, Sunshine."
"They want you to die, Greg. But you can't. If you die, I die. Fight them, Greg, If you want me to stay with you, fight them with everything you have."
"But…will I see you again?"
"Of course. I'll be there when you wake up, Greg. I'll be everywhere. But you need to find me. If you don't find me, we'll both be gone." I want to ask her more, who wants me dead? Why? Where will she be? But before I can, I feel her hand start to slip away from mine. I grip tighter, but she's gone. Everything is black again