A/N:
I know, I KNOW, starting another new
story. But I've decided to focus my writing on this one and
'Closure' for now, which are my stories I'm most inspired for
and excited about at the moment. This is a beginning I wrote a while
ago and it really is just a fun story. I'm not following the show
as it is at the moment. In my fic the team is still together and all
of the characters are still alive and in Las Vegas. I'm trying to
give each character the same amount of attention in this story. It
will be hard, as I'm usually focused on Greg and Sara (hence this
chapter too), but it's a challenge and I like those. I'll shut up
now and I hope you guys enjoy this. I certainly enjoy writing it.
Our Battles
"What the hell does this thing what from me?!" Sara shouted out, exasperation evident in her voice. Frustrated she gave a firm pull at the guy-rope, which was supposed to hold up the tent-poles on which the tent was leaning. But every time she pulled the rope, the tent-pole would crash down again. She let go of the rope, resulting in the whole thing now to collapse to the ground.
Angrily, Sara took off her blue cap and wiped some sweat away from her forehead, exhaling loudly. For at least the tenth time that day she asked herself why on earth she was doing this. A few weeks ago, her elder co-worker Catherine Willows, had suggested that the whole CSI team go on a trip together. "To blow off some stream from the pain and misery we see together every day," were the woman's exact words. Sara rolled her eyes remembering.
Their supervisor, Gil Grissom, hadn't been all that enthusiastic about it at first, but good friends as they were, Catherine knew how to talk him into things, and she was the reason he was now eagerly smashing tent pins into the ground with a hammer. Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown had thought it 'sounded good to them' when Catherine had proposed her plan to them, but Sara was absolutely sure that they only had said to please Catherine, for whom they both had a weakness. When Sara had heard about 'the trip' she had first wondered if Catherine was feeling alright. But when Greg Sanders, her younger co-worker and former lab rat, had been nearly jumping around from excitement to her about it, she couldn't bear to say no.
Only had she had a different image in her head by a 'co-worker trip' than her female colleague. Camping in the middle of nowhere was apparently Catherine's idea of team bonding and if Sara hadn't promised to come along to Greg she would never have stepped into the car this morning.
"Not working? Wait, let me help you."
Sara looked up by the sound of Greg's voice. She forced a smile to her face and stepped aside to give him his way. She pulled her water bottle out of her backpack and watched as Greg skillfully adjusted the guy-rope until it was long enough to touch the ground, before hooking it on to a tent-pin and slamming the pin down with his hammer.
"Done."
He looked up at her , squeezing his eyes slightly against the sun.
"Thanks, Greg."
"No problem!" Pleased with himself, Greg smiled at her, before turning to go back to the other tent he was putting up with Grissom. He only seemed to have forgotten about the guy-rope he had just put up so brilliantly, because when he stepped on, his foot got stuck behind it, and he fell flatly forward into the grass.
Sara felt the temptation to burst out laughing, but Greg's tomato red face, looking sad and ashamed, made her suppress it. She couldn't stand to see him like this, so she quickly reached out her hand to him, which he gratefully took and she helped him up.
With a quick glance around she noticed all of the other CSIs had stopped their activities and were looking at Greg. Her mind worked at high speed; she had to do something to save his reputation.
"Sorry, Greggo, that was my fault! Forget I had that rope pulled out, otherwise I would've warned you. Stupid, sorry."
"T-That's okay, I guess," Greg mumbled, wiping the dirt of off his trousers.
Sara let out a breath when the rest decided this was no longer interesting and continued putting up their tents. Greg looked at her, and his mouth muffled the words 'Thank you'. She smiled at him and he turned to go back to his tent now.
With her hands on her hips, Sara scanned the area around her. To her left Warrick and Catherine were struggling to get up a tent. Sara saw Catherine's chest rising and then falling, indicating she was sighing heavily and she realized to her small delight that even the woman behind this lovely adventure didn't seem too amused at the moment.
To her right Grissom and Greg were working on another tent. Nick stood bent over working on his tent, sweat on his forehead.
Sara had no idea how, but half an hour later all three tents were up, each of them sleeping two people.
"Alright," Catherine said, as they all had gathered together in a circle around her, "to avoid akward and childish situations about who sleeps where and who sleeps with who – in a tent, Greg, don't let your imagination run away with you – I made these little notes with your names on them, which will make the decision." She waved with a small box to show the others.
None said anything to that, but Sara knew they all thought the same: Catherine's little system would cause more 'awkward and childish situations' than if they had just solved it out together. But apparently nobody was planning on telling her this, so Sara decided to hold her tongue as well.
"Okay, here we go," Catherine continued, a little bit taken aback by none responding to her brilliance. She pulled two folded pieces of paper out of the box. "I've got here… Warrick and Nick."
"Hey man, you better not snore," Warrick said, as he and Nick started dragging their luggage towards the nearest tent.
"What, me? I never snore!"
Their voices faded away as they walked further from the group. The three left CSIs waited in silence as Catherine pulled another set of paper pieces out of the box.
"Sara and Greg."
Sara was too busy gathering her stuff together to notice Greg's eyes light up with happiness.