Retrieval

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI.

Summary: Greg decides that it is Sara's turn to try and save what is between them, but when Greg is taken away from her, the only thing that remains from him are letters full of made-up memories. Sequel to 'Hidden Damages'. SaraGreg.

Rating: T

A/N: Updating on all my stories will go a little slower in the next weeks, but maybe some encouragement will make it faster. :D

Thanks to Jenny for betareading!

Chapter 1: What is now

"It's your turn to answer, Greg," Nick said beaming, while Greg leaned back in his chair expectantly. Nick smirked at Warrick who took the hint.

"Have you ever been asked out by a hot girl and said no?" Warrick wanted to know, grinning at both of his colleagues who were sitting with him at the table in the break room of the crime lab while Sara was browsing through a file sitting on the couch.

"Yeah," Greg answered, taking a bit from his sandwich, hoping to hide his embarrassment. He glanced nervously at Sara who had not even looked up. Greg was not even sure if she was listening to the game her co-workers were playing during their break. She was on break as well, but still absorbed in her work, as she had been even more than usual in the last two months, since she had asked Greg out and he had said no.

Warrick and Nick were smirking.

"So you think we believe that? You really chucked away the chance to take out a lady?" Warrick asked incredulously.

Greg sighed. "I did. And come on, I even believed you when you said no on the question if you've ever gone out with two girls at once." He shook his head.

"Hey, you have to give me some credit," Warrick protested, but Nick interjected him.

"And have you ever regretted that you said no?" he asked Greg curiously. His younger colleague suddenly studied his half-eaten sandwich closely.

"Only one question a turn," he grumbled then, and Nick turned to Warrick with a knowing smile.

"Your turn, Nick."

At this moment Sara jumped up from the couch, closing the file in her hand hastily.

"Could you maybe finish your childish game? There's enough work to do," she said, sounding unnerved. The only response she got was a surprised, sudden silence from her co-workers on that she marched off, mumbling something to herself.

"Wow, Sara's in a bad mood today," Nick stated the obvious and Warrick nodded.

"She's one of those poor girls, you know," he said, Nick and Greg turning to him curiously. "Asked out a guy who said no," Warrick specified, causing Greg to frown. They could not know… He had not mentioned it to them, and he was sure that Sara had not done so either.

Nick nodded. "Grissom." Greg shook his head slightly to himself at the stupid idea he had had that they could talk about him. Grissom of course. Everybody had heard it through the grapevine that Sara had asked her boss out after the lab explosion. Even Greg had learned about it after he had been back at work.

Greg doubted very much that Sara had been so upset just some moments ago because of that thing that was years ago. If her bad temper had actually something to do with the question-and-answer game he, Nick and Warrick had been playing, it was more likely because of the thing between Sara and him.

Greg could answer Nick's question silently, to himself. He did not regret that he had turned Sara down. In all the years before he would have never thought that he would do that; but at the moment when she had asked him out he had not been able, or willing for that matter, to forgive her so quickly or so much that he could accept her offer. He did not hold a grudge against her; it was not his manner at all to do that. But her assumption that he would forgive her so easily and that they could just continue where they had stopped before everything that had damaged their relationship had happened, had angered him.

Sara had never actually apologized to him and had acted as if he was a guy who would take any chance to go out with her, no matter the situation. She had never said that she was sorry about making a false report on him to Grissom, that she had managed to get Greg into trouble to satisfy her own anger at first and later because she was too stubborn to take it back.

As he, Nick and Warrick had kind of lost track and interest on their game, and their break was anyway over, Greg got up from his chair, frowning at the pitiful rest of his sandwich.

Sighing he realized that he actually had to search for Sara, as he was supposed to catch up on a case she was working on, after he had closed a case earlier that night he had been working with Nick and Warrick.

He looked for her for several minutes, before he stopped dead in front of the trace lab, hearing Hodges' voice coming out of it.

"I heard Sanders will work with you on the case now?" he asked.

"Yeah," Sara answered, sounding absent-mindedly, probably reading a paper with results.

"It's probably unnerving to have him around again?" Hodges assumed and Greg rolled his eyes.

"Actually not. Greg's doing a great job and I enjoy working with him," Sara responded rather calmly and it sounded as if she was crushing the paper against something or someone. Greg was definitely pleased to hear that she thought he was doing well, even if she only said it to Hodges.

"I heard something else, about what he did-," the trace tech didn't give up.

"Then you heard wrong, Greg hasn't done anything wrong," Sara said in a tone that made clear that the conversation was finished. Before Greg could shake his head long about the fact that Sara had never admitted towards him that he had not done anything wrong, but that she now willingly did it towards Hodges, he remembered to move away from the lab. Sara was just bolting out of it and he did not want to get caught eavesdropping. When Sara stepped out of the room, Greg managed to make it look as if he was just coming up towards the trace lab from the hallway.

"Hey," Sara tried a half-smile that Greg returned. "Time to get you caught up on the case," she suggested and Greg nodded.

It was not like they could not work or talk with each other. Greg had made very sure that Sara realized that his refusal to repeat the first date they had had before everything had gone down the drain, did not mean that he did not want to be friends with her. He really wanted that they stayed that. What had annoyed him at her dare to ask him out again was that after she had blown him his friendship into his face, she had actually acted as if she wanted to go even a step beyond being friends, when that had to be rebuilt in the first place.

Greg and Sara seated themselves into a quiet room, Sara bringing along all files and results that were related to her case. She gave him a short overview about everything and answered some question he had.

"We can't exactly call it a serial by now, as it were only two so far. Hopefully there won't come more, but it's a definite possibility that there will," Sara explained.

"So the link between both cases is that it were both young Asian women, strangled, deposed in houses that are ripe for demolition?" Greg tried to clarify.

"Exactly."

"And where are we going from here?"

Sara leaned over the table to pick up a file, finally brushing past Greg to reach it.

Greg felt that there was tension between them, but it was not even unpleasant.

"Well, I've gone over both places with a tooth brush," Sara told him, smiling at him faintly. "It's difficult though to distinguish what is evidence from what has been there before the deposition of the bodies," she continued, frowning thoughtfully. Greg suddenly jumped up.

"I'll go and get the evidence box," he declared, turning to get out of the room.

"It's more like boxes," Sara corrected him. "It's a lot of stuff." She dropped the file she had been holding and stood up as well. "I'll help you."

Greg shook his head quickly. "I'll manage."

He hurried out of the room, ignoring Sara's frown. He had to get away from her for some minutes, knowing that he was giving in. It was not like she had said or done anything about it, but Greg still thought of - and felt - what could have been between them, if things had gone differently.

He could not forget about their first date. He had tried to, but had failed miserably. While Greg did not regret that he had refused to go out with Sara again two months ago, it was not because he did not see anything between them anymore. He did not consider it settled once and for all, it was not over for good.

He had told Sara that he did not think they could make the thing between them work. And what he had meant was that he thought that it would not work unless they sorted out the problems between them, and in this matter it was definitely Sara's turn.

TBC