DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI
Okay, this was just an idea I got into my head from listening to Maroon 5s Payphone. Review if you want more.
Sorry about the last one, I had song lyrics in the title with bad words so it got removed. Anyway, it's reposted now, and I finished it!
"Hey, Nick, do you know where Greg is?" Sara Sidle asked, seeing the Texan in the break room.
"No." he answered coldly.
"Hey, I think your coffee's ready." she smiled, gesturing the beeping coffee machine.
"Don't want it anymore." he replied, getting up to leave.
"You sure?"
"I need to be somewhere anyway."
"Nick?" she asked. "What is it?"
"Why would you do that to him?" he asked. Sara froze, knowing exactly what he meant. She opened her mouth to protest, to defend herself, to make some half-hearted attempt at explaining. But he cut her off.
"Save it."
She looked at the retreating figure, her mouth still open. She should have expected that. She left to go find Catherine. She might know where he was.
As soon as Sara walked into the layout room, Catherine walked right out. Sara called her back.
"Catherine?"
"Sara." she responded, her tone similar to Nick's, except angrier.
How many people had he told?
"Just answer this for me, Sara, why?" Catherine asked her.
"I...I just felt like..."
"You know what, I don't care why anymore. I hope you're happy."
Then Catherine turned on her heel and walked away.
Sara ran through the list of people in her head, Warrick, no, if Greg told Nick and Catherine he would have told Warrick too. Grissom? No he was part of the problem. One of the lab techs would have to do. She just needed to talk to someone.
Sara walked into the DNA lab first. Mandy and Wendy sat on their deskchairs, gossiping about something over cups of coffee.
"Hi." she smiled, coming up to their table.
"Your results are in the printer." Wendy told her.
"Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you too about something."
"Greg?"
"He told you?"
"He didn't have to. He talks about you all the time for the last week. Then he's all depressed."
"It didn't happen like you think, I..."
"Greg is the only one of the CSI's who scomes by the lab just to talk to us. The only one who ever invites us out, or brings us takeaway from that diner you guys always go to. He's the only one who remembers our birthdays. Who's side do you think we're going to take?"
Sara left the DNA lab, half contemplating talking to Henry, Archie, Bobby or even Hodges. But when she passed the AV lab, she heard a conversation.
"...can't believe..." she heard Archie's voice.
"...he doesn't deserve..." Henry was saying.
"What a bitch." that bit was Bobby.
"Even I...not fair" Hodges added.
Sighing, Sara walked on. It didn't take a genius to figure out who they were talking about.
She dialed Greg's cell again. Still voicemail. She really needed to talk to him.
She reached the locker room, where Warrick sat, tying his shoelace he looked up as she came in, them pointedly looked down again. Ignoring him, Sara saw the envelope stuck to her locker door. She recognised Greg's untidy handwriting. Tearing it open, she pulled out the letter inside.
Dear Sara
It pains me to say this, but I hope you are happy with him.
Love Greg.
Sara read it three times before her legs collapsed beneath her. She was aware of Warrick looking at her, but he made no effort to help. Pulling herself up again, Sara read the note once more. She didn't like it. It sounded like a goodbye.
He had been sitting there for a while, trying to figure out the best way to go. He would have said something painless, but he was so numbed by the pain now that nothing could ever really hurt him again, he couldn't really feel anything anymore. Setting himself on fire was good, but he wanted to look good at the funeral. For his parents sake. Going underwater and not coming back up, not very dramatic. Pills, they take too long, besides, he had no idea where to get them or how many to take. Poison, he'd end up jumping about like a fish while dying, and that wasn't poetic enough. Slitting his wrists was too cliched, and Greg didn't want to do a gunshot to the head, the big bullet hole in his temple might upset some people. The best way was to jump, Greg decided. He just needed a high enough building. He would feel bad for Nick, Catherine, Warrick, all his friends at the lab. He would even feel bad for Grissom. He would feel bad for Sara, only he knew it wouldn't affect her. She wouldn't even cry.
"Sara, have you seen Greg?" Grissom asked her when she came into his office.
"No, I was going to ask you that." she replied.
"He's not answering his phone." Grissom told her, and Sara bit her tongue before she could say "I know."
"I'm going to go to his place and see if he's there." she told her boss.
Her boss. She was going to have to start thinking about him as her boss again. That was all he ever would be.
When she arrived at the apartment, he didn't answer the door. Luckily, she knew where he kept his spare key, under the plant pot, so she picked it up and opened the door.
The first thing that hit her was the music. A song was playing on his C.D. player, and it filled the emptiness of a room with a yellow sofa and a framed picture of spongbob, a room with a shrine to coffee in one corner and a stack of magazines, C.D.s and movies that went all the way up to the ceiling. A room with a coffee table painted to like the ocean, and a T.V. that covered one entire wall. The room was still empty though. Because Greg wasn't in it. She went into the next room and gasped. The window was wide open.
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I've spent on you
Where have the times gone baby
It's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two
Yeah, I, I know it's hard to remember
The people we used to be
It's even harder to picture
That you're not here next to me
You say it's too late to make it
But is it too late to try?
And then that time that you wasted
All of our bridges burnt down
I've wasted my nights
You turned out the lights
Now I'm paralyzed
Still stuck in that time when we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I've spent on you
Where have the times gone baby
It's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two
If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
All those fairytales are full of it
One more stupid love song I'll be sick.
You turned your back on tomorrow
Cause you forgot yesterday
I gave you my love to borrow
But just gave it away
You can't expect me to be fine
I don't expect you to care
I know I said it before
But all of our bridges burnt down
I've wasted my nights
You turned out the lights
Now I'm paralyzed
Still stuck in that time when we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change i've spent on you
Where have the times gone baby
It's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two
If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
And all those fairytales are full of it
One more stupid love song i'll be sick
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change i've spent on you
Where are the times gone baby
It's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two
If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
And all these fairytales are full of shit
One more fuckin' love song i'll be sick
Now i'm at a payphone...
"Greg..." she whispered.
"Greg!" she screamed.
"Greg" she wept.
Sara wasn't sure how long she stayed in Greg's bedroom, saying his name and crying into his luminow orange carpet. She wasn't aware of time passing. All she knew was that, by the time Nick, Warrick, Catherine and Grissom ran into the room, it was dark outside. It was dark everywhere.