Author: Joyce
Title: Choices
Disclaimer: They are not mine.
Timeline: The beginning of season four. It's AU.
Note: I'm back with a new Swarrick story. This is actually different from what I've written before. It's going to be a story that is 3 chapters long and it lacks the fluff that you can find in my other stories. The third chapter will involve a character death and this story will not have a happy ending. I'm planning on writing a larger story after this one that will be as fluffy and happy as usual but I needed to get this story out of my head first. I do hope you guys like reading it. Please, tell me what you think. Writing angst is a whole new thing for me and I would love to hear your opinions.
Making a new start
Sara Sidle had never been the person to listen to rumors and people in the lab knew that. They usually avoided her when it concerned gossip but today the lab was buzzing and Sara had to admit to herself that she was a bit curious about the source of all the commotion. Sighing to herself she decided that for once she would let herself join the gossip. After all, she was a CSI and CSI's had a unhealthy hunger for truth. She was just searching for the truth she told herself. That was why Sara found herself lingering in Greg's lab somewhat longer while the younger man didn't look at her anymore, convinced that he had told her everything she needed to know.
"So," Sara began, "what's new in the lab?"
She cursed herself for her clumsy way of asking but Greg looked at her immediately, a glint in his eyes that told her that he couldn't wait to tell her the news.
"Have you heard?" he said with excitement, looking around in a exaggerated matter before he whispered. "Warrick is transferring to the day shift, apparently Ecklie had great fun in stealing Grissom's favorite away. Some of us saw him walking around in the halls like a proud rooster who had just scored with the prettiest chick in the hen."
Sara shook her head to clear it, looking at the lab tech in shock. "Are you sure?" she asked him and he nodded. "It's a done deal."
Turning around she mumbled something to Greg that sounded like a greeting and then she was running trough the lab, trying to find him. She found him in one of the quieter labs, located in the back of the building and she stormed in, not even bothering to knock.
"Were you planning on telling me?" she hissed and he looked up, an indifferent expression on his face.
"Tell you what?" he asked her while looking back at his evidence.
"You," she continued, frustrated by the lack of attention he was giving her, "becoming Ecklie's new pet in the day shift."
He kept his eyes fixed on the evidence under his microscope. "Why should that bother you?" he asked her coldly. "It's not like you ever cared."
She was silent, just watching him. "Did I really hurt you that much?" she asked him and he looked at her then, a scowl on his face.
"No, Sidle," he retorted, "I like it when people use me and toss me away when they're done. It's a blast, you should try it sometimes."
"I never used you," she whispered and he laughed while shaking his head. "Whatever, if that thought makes you sleep at night then go right ahead and believe just that," he said to her, his anger gone and replaced by his earlier unreadable expression. "Just go, I'm sure Griss needs you."
"But, Warrick," she tried one last time, reaching out and grabbing his hand and he pulled back like she burned him, a look of rage in his eyes.
"Don't touch me," he ordered her, "don't you ever touch me again."
"I'm sorry," she said, tears in her eyes and he just watched her. Not trying to stop her from crying, making no move to comfort her.
"Get out," was all he said and she turned around, defeated.
"I'll miss you," she mumbled and she looked back, hoping to see some of the warmth she had missed so much. She found nothing.
"I'm sure Grissom will make you forget all about me," he told her, walking back to his seat and considering the conversation over.
"I had to give him a chance, Rick," she said, lingering in the doorway.
"I know," he commented, letting her see how much he was hurting for the first time since she entered his lab. "You seem to owe him something that no amount of love that I gave you could ever replace."
"You don't get it," she said, hesitantly taking a step forward and she flinched when he got up and distanced himself from her.
"Get out," he told her again, his back to her and she did, trying very much to keep her tears inside while she ran to the break room.
Back in his lab, Warrick sighed and rubbed his head in a tired manner, angry by the fact that she had gotten to him yet again.
"Are you ok, bro?" he heard behind him and he turned around to see Nick in his lab.
"I'll be fine," he answered shortly, not wanting to talk about it but Nick had no intention to let his friend hurt on his own.
"Cutting her out of your life won't help," he said simply, hoping that he would be able to talk some sense in his friend this time.
"It has to," Warrick told him stubbornly. "I can't do this anymore, I can't walk in every night and see her with him. Knowing that they are a couple now but also knowing that I can't say anything because to the outside world they are just Sara and Grissom, two people who work together. It's to damn hard."
"She's not happy with him, Rick," Nick said in a matter of fact kind of way. "Not like she was with you, I know. I'm the only one who saw you two together, she loved you."
"She dumped me," Warrick yelled, "when he finally showed interest in her, she just dumped me. She packed up her things and left me because she needed to get him out of her system. I gave her two years of my life, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and she walked out because Grissom woke up and realized what he had missed all along. "
"She made a mistake, bro," Nick said before he walked out of the lab. "Let her try to make it up to you."
He stopped when Warrick called his name.
"I don't want her to make it up to me," he sighed, "Don't you see that? She picked him over me and there is nothing that she can do that will make that fact go away. I just want her out of my life," he finished and Nick finally saw the hurt and the anger that his friend had repressed for so long.
"But you love her," Nick stated and Warrick nodded. "Just as much as I hate her," he confessed. "I need to do this, Nicky. I need to start living again. Please, just support me."
Nick walked back into the lab and hugged his friend. "You know I'll always have you back I just want what's best for you."
The taller man frowned before he allowed his friend to hug him. "When will it stop hurting?" he asked him and Nick released him, smiling a little.
"When you are ready for it," he answered. "You'll make it, I know you will."
Warrick grinned, the first hint of a smile that Nick had seen since Sara had left him weeks ago. "Thanks, man."
"Anytime," Nick replied before he disappeared in the halls of the lab and Warrick turned back to his work to be interrupted by Ecklie ten minutes later.
"Me and Grissom just agreed that you transfer tomorrow," he informed him. "Are you sure you're ready?"
Warrick just nodded, a look a determination in his eyes.
"I'm ready," he told him without hesitation.
Tbc...
