Yet another challenge that I figured I'd undertake. The song is called 'Your Everything' by Keith Urban.
Disclaimer: I don't own them...they're just borrowed...and for now Greg can sing...lol
Secret Admirer Challenge
Dream © 2005
Sara yawned and tried not to think about it. She trudged through the lab toward the locker room, she'd already had half a pot of coffee but for the life of her she couldn't find the energy today. Did the lab really have that many calendars? Why did it feel like today the world was conspiring against her?
"Happy Valentines Day Sara."
"Don't start with me Hodges?"
"Start what? I take it you don't have a date tonight?"
She gave him her best glare, "That right there is starting David." She kept going before he could say anything else. Yup it was official…today sucked shit.
Nick found her with her forehead against her locker, her eyes closed. "You know I always knew you slept standing up."
She opened one eye, "Damn thing is stuck again."
He shook his head; she always got like this on February 14th. She'd never admit as to why, but he knew. He also knew that if she was willing to take a risk today would be drastically different.
"Here let me try." He gently pushed against the middle of the locker and lifted the latch. It opened easily.
Sara groaned, "I swear that thing is conspiring against me."
"Hey what's this?" Nick bent down to pick up a piece of paper that had 'fallen' out of the locker.
Sara took it and pushed it into her pocket, "I'll read it later we have to get our assignments."
Damnit. "Right." Nick nodded and followed her down the hall. He was almost discouraged till he noticed her pull the paper out of her pocket and start reading as she sat down.
Catherine, Warrick and Grissom were already there they exchanged knowing looks with Nick, unobserved by Sara who was rereading the note.
"The first time I looked in your eyes I knew
I would do anything for you"
I hope you get the best assignment today and remember, you're beautiful when you smile. SA
Sara smiled in spite of herself. SA, what did that mean?
The door slammed open with a flourish, "Sorry I'm late, I slept through my alarm."
"Get a louder one Greg." Grissom said sternly.
"Something on your mind Sar?" Catherine asked casually.
"Huh, what? Umm…" She slipped the piece of paper back into her pocket and hoped to God no one noticed her blushing. "Nope nothing, hey Greg." She smiled at him.
He nodded and sat down, "Anything good tonight Griss? Head in a bucket or something cool like that?"
"You're sick Greggo." Nick laughed.
"Nah I'm just eager to learn."
"I'll remember that next time we have to boil a skull for head wound analysis." Warrick quipped.
"Alright people let's just get this over with." Grissom took control, "Greg, you and Nick are working a trick roll…" He handed the younger man the file and discreetly palmed the slip of paper Greg gave him.
"Sweet, you're my mentor tonight big guy." Greg read through the file.
"Can't wait." Nick rolled his eyes.
"Cath, you and Sara have an abandoned car flagged by missing persons. Owner's a Sally Carter…husband reported her missing four days ago, mysterious circs." He had the file open as he read the information. Slipping the note in there he handed it to Sara who was, conveniently sitting closer to him.
"Warrick you're with me, body in the dump…heavy decomp."
"Loads of bugs?"
Grissom nodded with a smile, "Should be intriguing."
"Or disgusting depending on how you look at it." Warrick turned up his nose.
"You could learn something Warrick." Grissom smacked the man's arm with the file, "I'm done have a good night folks."
Sara didn't notice anyone leaving; she was staring at the piece of paper that looked alarmingly like the previous one.
"I wanna give back what you've given to me
I wanna witness all of your dreams"
Trust me this will be worth it. Now come on, get to work. Oh and look under the seat of the Denali on the way to your scene. SA
"Ehm," Catherine cleared her throat, "Do you have some riveting reading there?"
Pulling the note out and placing it in her pocket with the other Sara stood quickly, "Huh, nope still trying to wake up. Uh, let's go."
"Okay, I'll drive."
"Fine." She usually drove, but she wanted to see if whoever this person was would know that she wasn't this time.
Catherine gave Greg thumbs up as the two women walked passed him to their vehicle.
"I put your kits in there for you ladies." He said with a smile.
"Thanks Greg." Catherine said.
Sara just gave him a wave and a half smile, her mind was going over who it could be. Grissom wasn't creative enough; Warrick was still dating that girl, what's her name. Nick…could it be Nick? Nah. Maybe it was Archie? Or that new guy Ted in ballistics, she was definitely curious.
As soon as she was sitting she reached under the seat. Her hand rested on a box, she pulled it out and started laughing.
"Gobstoppers?" Catherine was working her acting ability to the hilt today.
"I used to eat these all the time when I was a kid." She muttered as she pulled off the note that was taped to the top.
"I wanna, be the wind that fills your sails
Be the hand that lifts your veil
Be the moon that moves your tide
The sun comin' up in your eyes"
You have an addicting laugh. You laughed didn't you? I hope these are making your day better. Enjoy the purple ones. SA
"Looks like you have a secret admirer." Catherine observed as she weaved her way through traffic.
SA. Secret Admirer! Sara groaned, you'd think a trained investigator would have figured that out. This was all too surreal. She opened the box and poured the candy out onto her hand and popped her favorite into her mouth. A purple one. "Nah someone probably left them there."
"Right, the last person to clean it missed them and you knew they'd be there?" Catherine rolled her eyes, "Sure Sara."
"I don't get admirers Cath." Sara brushed it off, although she had to admit that butterflies had been dancing around her insides since that first note.
"You can't be serious."
"Of course I'm serious, I was always the brain, I can't pull off gorgeous like you can." She said matter of factly.
Catherine shook her head, "You really are oblivious."
Just then a detective came over to them and gave them all he knew about their scene.
"Thanks Mia." Greg called as he left the DNA lab, "hey Sar." He tapped his forehead in a salute then sped by her around the corner.
She just barely looked up from what she was reading, "Hey Greg do you…" He was gone before she could finish her question.
"That 'blob' that you and Catherine gathered from the floor of the car." Mia started talking as soon as Sara was in the room.
"Yeah what was it?"
"Nasal mucus, someone didn't cover their mouth when they sneezed." Mia shuddered in disgust, "Gross, check the scope."
"Great, did you get DNA?" Sara put the pages down and looked in the microscope.
"I'm running it through CODIS as we speak." Mia said quickly sliding a note between two of the sheets.
"Perfect, page me if you get a hit."
"You know it could just be our missing lady." Mia pointed out.
"It could, but we won't know that till we check." Sara picked up the papers, "I'm gonna go see if Jacqui got anything off those prints.
"Hey Sar." Nick waved as she crossed the hall.
She didn't notice him, she was reading.
"Be the wheel that never rusts
Be the spark that lights you up"
If you are at all curious about any of this be at Sparky's bar…11:30pm. SA
Jacqui hit play on the CD Nick had given her just as Sara walked into the room. "Hey you, I got nothing on your prints. They were just from the husband and wife, which makes sense since they owned the car."
"Damn, we're getting no where on this…" Sara stopped, "What song is that?"
Jacqui looked at the player, "I couldn't tell you, it's just the radio, why?"
Sara pulled out the other notes and read through the words at the top. They were cheesy, they guy singing them was country, they were lyrics. She was beyond curious now.
"I can't believe you talked me into using that song." Greg grumbled as he went through the contents of one of the evidence bags he and Nick had collected from the scene.
Nick laughed, "Did you really expect to find a love song among YOUR CD collection?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"That Marilyn Manson isn't exactly known for his ballads."
Greg sighed, "You think she'll show?"
"Oh yeah, she's way too curious not to." Nick reassured him.
"I'm actually gonna sing to her?"
"Apparently."
"What the hell am I thinking?"
"That you can't wait around any more for her to get a clue, now focus," Nick laughed.
"Oh I did not sign on to do any singing." Warrick was staring at Catherine and Grissom with shock, "And why don't you have to?" He pointed at Grissom.
"Because someone has to make sure she doesn't leave."
"Greg didn't have the stones to force him?" Warrick asked Catherine.
She laughed. "Exactly, you on the other hand are going to sing back up like any good friend."
"I can't believe we're doing this." He got into the car with the two of them, it was almost 11:00 and they needed to meet Greg and Nick.
Sara couldn't find anybody. She checked the break room, all the open evidence rooms; even Grissom's office was empty. This was so weird. "Are you still here Sara?"
"Where else would I be?"
Hodges shrugged, "There isn't much happening, take a lunch break and come back."
She looked at him strangely, "Since when did you care about whether I have a break?"
"I didn't say I cared." Hodges smirked, "It was just a suggestion, do what you want."
She looked at her watch, 11:15, she might as well go find out what this whole thing was about. "Hey Hodges do me a favor?"
"If I have to."
"Call my phone if I'm not back by 1."
"Yeah sure whatever." He waved and headed down the hall back to the trace lab.
She very tentatively entered the bar and was met with the melodious sounds of a drunk man trying to belt out 'Baby One More Time.' "A karaoke bar?" She muttered to herself and sat on one of the bar stools.
The bartender smiled at her, "What's your poison?"
"Just a Bud." She said and looked at her watch, 11:29.
She glanced around the room trying to see if she recognized anyone when the chords of the song that had been playing in Jacqui's office started to resound throughout the room. She looked over at the stage, her jaw slowly dropped in shock. If she had been holding her drink she would have dropped it.
It turned out Warrick didn't have to sing, he only had to play piano, or at least pretend to, Catherine was behind a set of drums with a big smile mimicking hitting them, while Nick had lead guitar…Greg stood in front of the mic and scanned the room. He smiled when he saw her sitting at the bar just staring at him.
He looked over at the karaoke screen and started singing the words as they appeared:
The first time I looked in your eyes I knew
I would do anything for you
The first time you touched my face I felt
What I'd never felt with anyone else
I wanna give back what you've given to me
I wanna witness all of your dreams
Now that you've shown me who I really am
I wanna be more than just your man
I wanna, be wind that fills your sails
Be the hand that lifts your veil
Be the moon that moves your tide
The sun comin' up in your eyes
Be the wheel that never rusts
Be the spark that lights you up
All that you've been dreamin' of and more
So much more
I wanna be your everything
When you wake up I'll be the first thing you see
When it gets dark you can reach out to me
I cherish your words
I'll finish your thoughts
I'll be your compass baby
When you get lost
He sang the chorus one more time before the song ended.
She hadn't moved, she just watched him, the tears fell without her prompting she was too stunned to even remember how to breathe.
"I never knew he could sing like that."
Her head slowly turned, "G-grissom?"
He smiled at her, "I think this is the part where you go talk to him."
"I wouldn't know what to say." She looked back and watched her friends file off the stage and head toward them.
"I'd start with thank you and go from there." Grissom suggested then motioned with his head for Warrick, Nick and Catherine to follow him to the table he'd been sitting at.
Greg was nervous as hell. He wrung his hands and forced himself to look at her. He cleared his throat, "I take it you got my notes."
"You," Sara gulped trying to swallow and breathe at the same time, "I can't believe…" She ran a hand over her face; words were not working their way out of her mouth at all.
"I couldn't think of another way to tell you. You umm," He looked down at his feet, "Never seem to really catch my hints."
"I always thought you were kidding." There was a full sentence; she was slowly coming back to her senses.
"Nope." He couldn't think of anything else to say because he was sure she was on her way to rejecting him.
"You got…I mean you actually got them all to help you?"
He nodded with a smile, "Apparently they all knew I wasn't kidding."
She blushed, "I'm sorry."
His heart fell; she really was going to reject him. He looked at his shoes again.
She noticed his reaction and quickly recovered by getting off of her stool, "I'm sorry I didn't take you seriously." She said stepping close to him.
He looked up at her over his lashes, not saying anything because he all of a sudden had a bit of hope, but he didn't want to scare her away by jumping on her.
She smiled at how shy he was after publicly serenading her with half of their office. She took hold of one of his hands and pulled it around her waist then put a hand to his chest and leaned in to kiss him.
It took him a second to realize this was really happening. When he did he put both arms around her and deepened the kiss.
"Was that serious enough for you?" Sara asked against his mouth.
"Hell yeah." He said with a laugh.
"Do you think you too could either join us or find a room?" Nick's voice broke them out of their reverie.
Sara blushed and turned her head to look at him, "Sorry." She grabbed Greg's hand and made a decision right then, "We'll take door number two."
Nick was confused then raised his eyebrows in shock when he realized what she was saying. "Well then," He cleared his throat, "See you tomorrow."
Greg was a little slower to understand, "Door number two?" He asked.
She smiled coyly at him, "Find a room?" His shock was so cute she almost jumped him right there, "Unless you really want to join them."
"No, no," He quickly recovered and pulled her toward the door, "My place is closer."
Sara waved and blushed as Warrick and Nick started clapping and cheering from the table.
She took it back this was a fantastic day, she loved St. Valentine.
Hodges looked down at his phone…Sara wasn't answering…apparently she'd finally gotten the hint. He smiled in spite of himself, only he would know that he actually cared.