Title: Crossing Paths
Author: Ardelle Sagutcheway
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. Everything respectively owned by their owners (LoL)
Summary: Greg ponders over Sara's absence. A bit AU. Spoilers: Goodbye and Good Luck.
Greg paused over the locker that once belonged to a woman named Sara Sidle, and sighed. It has been only a week since she upped and left the crime lab, and already, one can see the difference.
Grissom dragged his feet, Nick was aching for her company, and well he was just missing her. How can one not miss Sara Sidle? She brightens the room with her smile, and Greg swears on his life, she can make you at least 10 percent smarter when around her for prolonged periods.
He smiled wistfully. Working with her when he was a rookie was definitely an experience. She took his questions in stride and never lost patience with him, unless of course, he provoked her. She was never judgmental with him, never doubted his decisions in the field, and overall believed in him.
Cheesy as it sounds, Sara was the reason he was such a good CSI.
When he got a call 6:30 in the morning, as he was leaving work, and on the other side of the line, Sara was crying, he knew something was wrong.
"Sara, honey, what's wrong?" Greg frowned, pausing in starting up his car. "Are you alright? Where are you?"
She laughed, and he sighed in relief. "I'm fine, Greg, and I'm at the airport."
His hand stilled over the ignition. "You're at the airport?" Dread settled deep in his stomach. "Why are you at the airport?" Silence filled the other end of the phone, as Greg waited for her answer.
"I'm leaving, Greg." Sara left him speechless with that sentence. "I'm going away for awhile, and I don't know when I'll be back."
Greg held back the tears that threatened to fall. He leaned his head against the steering wheel, and tried to figure out what to say. He wanted to drive as quickly as he could to the airport and stop her from getting on the airport, but he knows that Sara knew what she was doing. Going to the airport and pressuring her to stay will probably further her determination. Also, Greg knew something like this would happen. He could see the emptiness in her eyes as she tried to get through another day, every single day. Grissom's wedding proposal was great, but nothing could hide the fact that everyday she was fighting her demons. She was fighting for her life, in an emotional sense.
With the constant hopelessness that comes with the cases they take, certainly one could build a wall to block out those kinds of things, but the walls break eventually. It doesn't matter how tough the walls are, nothing could keep out the reality of life out.
"Sara," He cleared his throat, "Come back to us someday, okay?"
He could hear the frown in her voice, "You're not going to ask why I'm leaving?"
"If you wanted to tell me, you will," He replied, and he started up his car. "I learned a valuable lesson from Grandpa Olaf long ago, that if a woman wanted to tell you something, she will. In the end, it's up to you figure out what it means."
Her laugh echoed in his ear. "Your Grandpa Olaf is a smart man."
"I'm pretty sure he tells himself that everyday." He smiled into the phone, "Can I see you one last time? Give you a proper Sanders goodbye?"
"Sure, if you can get here in, like an hour. My plane leaves at 9:45." Greg was already formulating a plan, "And I need to check in at 9:00."
"I'll be there in 30 minutes." He hung up the phone abruptly, and looked over the steering wheel. Grissom stood on the front of his vehicle, looking at him weirdly. As he was rolling down his window, Greg briefly wondered if the older man knew about Sara. "I'm just about to head to the airport."
"Is somebody leaving?"
Greg froze. Gil Grissom didn't know that Sara was leaving, this morning. "A friend of mine that was visiting me is catching the early morning flight out." He had no idea what to say to the old man. Should he warn him? Then Sara will kill him. If he doesn't say anything, and he finds out Greg knew something, Grissom will kill him.
As much as he wanted to tell Grissom of Sara's plan, he knew it was his place to tell. Beside, he had only 30 minutes to get to the airport...
Greg closed his locker door as he remembered that day. He's not ashamed to admit that he shed a few tears as Sara got on the plane, because a great woman like Sara is a good reason to get misty-eyed. In the end, she didn't tell him why she's leaving. He told her it was great knowing her, and working under her, and that she'll be missed. She laughed it off, saying that goodbye shouldn't have to be forever.
Greg Sanders never was a man of god, but he did have fate in destiny. That's why he's pretty sure their paths will cross again.