Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of its characters.
Summary: While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,
everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)
Rating: T (Just in case.)
A/N: Thanks to FongSaiYuk319 for beta-reading! Remaining mistakes are mine : )
Unforeseen and unnoticed
Chapter 1: Get to know
Standing in the evidence room of the crime lab, Warrick Brown and Nick Stokes of swing shift were going through files and examining photos and pieces of evidence of a shooting case. They had gone through everything they had from this case at least half a dozen times, but they were stuck.
Swing shift supervisor Catherine Willows entered the room and wanted to know how the case was going.
"We've reached dead ends everywhere," Nick stated, sighing.
"Well then, I have a new assignment for the both of you. Another shooting," Catherine said and handed Warrick a piece of paper who read it while Nick was repacking the evidence that was laying on the table.
Some minutes later, Warrick and Nick were already on their way to the crime scene.
When they arrived there they discerned that the killing had obviously happened in a crowded street, at least it was crowded now, despite the fact that the scene had been taped off and that several police men were trying to convince people to move on.
Warrick walked to the police-officer in charge, who filled him with the facts he knew. Looking at the crowd that stood, waited and watched around the scene, Warrick asked the other man, "There are lots of people here. Who called the police?"
The police-officer pointed to a nervous looking but animatedly speaking elderly woman, who stood some steps away from them and talked to another police man. "She said a guy draw a gun suddenly, shot the man who was walking in front of him and disappeared in the crowd."
Warrick nodded. "Any confirmation of that?"
The other man raised his eyebrows. "You know, if you ask ten witnesses, you'll get ten different stories."
Warrick nodded again. "We'll go for the evidence then."
This intention was temporarily prevented by the elderly woman who came over to Warrick and Nick who had just approached his colleague. She began to talk to them lively. "He just drew his gun… it was really sudden …he shot the man in the head … it seemed random … shocking … disappeared faster than you could realize…"
Nick nodded and smiled in a friendly manner and was relieved by the police man who talked to the woman and walked with her a few steps away listening to the story again.
Now Warrick and Nick approached the body finally. It was a middle aged man and he had been shot into the back of his head. The victim was lying on his abdomen and the both CSIs were able to see the entrance wound on the back of his head easily.
"Looks familiar, doesn't it?" Nick asked.
Warrick nodded. "Just like the case we left back at the lab."
"Victim shot into the back of the head on an open, lively street. Killer disappears in the crowd."
"And we have nothing," Warrick added.
"Maybe it's different this time," Nick said hopefully.
The young woman in front of Greg started to cry.
It was well into the night and Greg was attending an interrogation in a case he and Sara had worked on. He looked to Sara slightly uncomfortable. She gave him a reassuring look and he turned his head back to the woman who was sitting at the other side of the table.
"Then you took the gun and threw it into the garbage?"
The dark-blonde woman nodded, sobbing.
"Your prints were also on the lamp that had been standing on your father's desk…" Greg continued.
"I … threw it on the …floor."
"To make it look like there had been a fight?" Sara asked.
The other woman nodded, still crying.
"Your father committed suicide and you made it look like a homicide," Greg summed up.
Nobody said anything after that for a minute. The only sounds were the quiet sobs of the young woman opposite of Greg and Sara.
Finally the blonde spoke again, although it was only very quietly and slowly. "The shame…" she whispered and added rather reluctantly "… and the life insurance wouldn't pay, if it was suicide…"
Half an hour later Greg and Sara were in the break room of the lab, Greg being so nice to hand Sara a cup of his favourite coffee.
He let himself sink on the couch taking in the pleasant smell of his own cup of coffee and drinking a sib.
"I was quite unsure for a moment if I handled that right," he stated frankly.
Sara looked up from her cup, surprised. "You were?" she wondered.
"Yeah, I was getting unsure if I had interpreted the evidence in the right way …" Greg explained, watching the coffee slosh in his cup.
Sara frowned, "But, I had the same opinion. I was sure that we were right, that you were right."
Greg chuckled. "What would I do without you?"
There was silence. Sara took another gulp of her coffee and Greg finally cleared his throat. "And then she started to cry," he said, rubbing his forehead. "I just don't know if I can handle things like that."
Sara came over to him and sat next to him on the couch. "You're doing fine, Greg."
Greg smiled and drank another gulp of his coffee.
"I never got to know an unsure Greg-the-lab-rat," Sara said, smiling.
"Well, then I was unbeatably charming, giving-you-results-in-humanly-almost-not-possible-time-periods-Greg."
Sara smiled. "And now …"
"Now I'm doing-something-he-wanted-to-do-for-a-long-time-but-does-not-know-if-he's really-good-enough-to-do-it-Greg," he said very fast. He sighed and leaned back on the couch.
"You are really the last person who I expected to have a self-confidence problem," Sara said seriously. Greg said nothing to that, which was rare enough.
After a while of silent drinking, Sara asked, "Why did you tell me that?"
"I just wanted you to know," he answered, shrugging.
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want you to wonder..." Greg dried up as if he wanted to say more, but looked into his cup instead of continuing to speak.
"And…?" Sara insisted.
"And, well, we're friends, aren't we?" Greg looked at her, his face somewhere between a grin and an asking expression.
Sara looked at Greg for a moment. He could not interpret the expression on her face.
"Sure," she answered finally.
Greg took the last sip out of his cup and stood up. He put it into the sink, turned on the water and washed up the cup. Then he turned around, grinning mischievously. "And now you tell me something about you."
Sara looked suspiciously. "Why?"
"So we get to know each other."
Sara groaned. "Greg, we already know each other."
Greg was still grinning. "True," he said and after some seconds, added merrily, "I know something about you."
Sara raised her eyebrows. "So?"
She took the last sip out of her cup of coffee while Greg was coming over to her. "You…" he began, smiling, taking the empty cup out of her hands, "… like my coffee."
TBC
