Chapter Two: On the Road

She had only owned two dresses her entire life. Once when she was four, the memory vague, fuzzy, but it was most definitely there. The other was old, but barely used. She had first bought it five years ago when she first came to Vegas. To please none other than Grissom. Was it a sad fact that she had never once worn it around him?

It was too small now, far shorter than she ever remembered it being. Sara frowned, turning to look at herself in the mirror. Had she gained weight? It would be an amazing fact if she did. After becoming a vegetarian her appetite had plummeted, for a short while it seemed as though she hardly ate anything. That was during the low point of her depression.

She tugged on the hem of the dress sighing. Therapy had helped, as much as she hated to admit. Still it scared her, talking to someone who didn't know her, and obviously didn't care about her life problems. They would nod; smile vaguely as the scratched notes down on a pad of paper, every so often making some sort of noise to ensure their clients they were listening.

In conclusion they had told her what she didn't want to hear, but somehow already knew. She looked for validation in the wrong places, had problems with authority, and last but certainly not the least, she searched for men that were emotionally unavailable. It all led back to one source, one person. And that person was Grissom.

Sara flopped down on the bed, dropping the outfit to the floor. Was she really doing anything different with Greg? Sure, she hadn't bluntly asked him out…but the signs were alarmingly clear, she had experienced the same thing when she first decided she loved Grissom. Would it end in the same way? The distance, the awkward silence?

She shook her head. Of course not, there were plenty of things different between Grissom and Greg. She was Greg's mentor, so there would be no problem with authority, seeing that she would have it all. And Greg, unlike Grissom, was not emotionally detached from his feelings. But if she was still seeking approval from Greg…would that be considered inappropriate?

When her cell phone rang she didn't even think twice as she pulled it out to answer. Her heart quickened a beat when Greg's voice came over the line, and for a moment she paused to consider how nice his voice actually sounded. Normally she was too focused on him to really even pay attention…

"I was wondering if you were planning on coming back in," was Greg's rendition of a hello.

"Yeah," Sara muttered, feeling flustered as she sat up, glancing at the clock. It was well past the time they were supposed to meet. Of course, instead of getting ready she had been modeling one outfit after another, trying to decide which ones were the best to wear. She didn't have anything revealing or inviting to wear. Her wardrobe consisted of plain, everyday clothes that were more and less…boring. Maybe she could bribe Catherine into taking her shopping when the opportunity came.

Sad to say the least, Greg was waiting for her, obviously unconcerned about her feminine habits that had all of the sudden come to life. For half a second she considered the fact that Greg would have to wait as long as she wanted, whether he like it or not, but decided not to press her luck. He sounded irritated already, and with a fourteen hour drive ahead…

With a growl she leapt off her bed, gathering a few pieces of clothing that had passed as reasonable. Shoving them into the empty suitcase she finished off with a few necessities any sane person wouldn't be caught without. Even as a little girl she never liked using the soaps and shampoos provided by the hotels, and hardly ever did she use their towels. It was an odd phobia, but the simple thought of other people handling them, strangers she didn't know using the shower, the tub….Sara shivered, quite confident that she had everything now.

One last check, glancing around the room as she made a mental checklist in her head. Having packed in a few spare minutes left her on edge, but she disregarded it as she headed out the door, making sure that everything was locked up tight.

"Half of it?" Greg wondered, more like pleaded as he quickened his pace to catch him. "Honestly, you're talking about a lot of money to process a crime scene."

Ecklie snorted, even as he straightened the collar of his tux. Apparently he had a press conference soon, and he couldn't leave the public waiting. "If you and Sara want to stay the night there it's your choice. The crime lab isn't going to pay for luxuries."

"It's going to take us all night just to get there," Greg protested, "and some of the next day."

The conversation was obviously going nowhere. Greg's plan to storm in on the man and state his opinion has fallen short the second he stepped into his presence. He had gone to Grissom first, but little that had done. The choice not to finance anything had been made by Ecklie. Apparently the lab was falling short in some areas, and in order to save a few sacrifices had to be made.

Of course, that didn't include Ecklie's prepaid trip to Boston for a forensics meet. Forget the fact the man had little to no interest in science, but on top of that, because of his status all he had to do was board the plane. What he did after that was his choice and the lab was paying it all.

"You're a CSI now," Ecklie turned to him, stopping in the hallway. "You need to take one for the team every now in then."

Greg held his hands up, "Taking one for the team means overtime off the clock, or buying supplies on your own money. Not funding an entire trip to another state."

He had been trying to state his point for the past fifteen minutes now, after growing tired of waiting for Sara. She had told him she would be in soon; Greg had already given up on keeping her to her word.

"There's nothing I can do Sanders," Ecklie told him sternly. "Just let it go."

Greg huffed, coming to a stop as he watched the man leave. It was hard to be on the bottom sometimes…make that most of the time. He rubbed the back of his neck, sauntering down the hallway in the other direction. Sara should be here soon hopefully, they needed to get on the road.

It was unlike Sara to be late, but then again Sara had been a lot unlike herself as of late. She had been jumpy, lost in thought. Dreamy almost; he suppressed a laugh as he came into the break room, smiling as he caught her eye. If Sara ever heard him say that out loud…

"You get on me for being late, and then I can't find you," Sara pointed out, leaning on the table.

"I needed to stretch my boundaries," Greg responded.

She laughed. "How far did you get?"

"I think my perimeter just got smaller. Are you ready?"

She nodded, knowing that her tardiness had already put them an hour behind schedule. As she moved to grab her bag Greg announced vividly that he would be driving, tossing the keys into the air.

She planned to argue with him, but he was already moving down the hall, forcing her to jog to catch up with him. After all, it wasn't too often she did let him drive, what was the worse that could happen?

"I can't believe you got us lost," Sara grumbled, taking a seat in the far back. Her head hung in her hands as she rubbed her forehead briefly.

"We're not lost," Greg argued sternly, sitting down across from her. "We just don't know exactly where we are. There is a difference. Besides, you're the one who was reading the map."

"And I said turn left. What do you do? You turn right."

He shook his head, "I asked 'turn left here?', and you said right. So I went right."

"I said right as in confirmation that you had to turn left," Sara supported her argument grouchily, her eyes scanning the menu that was placed before her.

"Then I continued to follow your quick and easy directions and we ended up even more lost," Greg griped heavily, looking over his own menu.

"Well with your driving one wouldn't be surprised. I couldn't take my eyes off the road long enough to even glance at the map."

Greg snorted, "Welcome to my world," he muttered quietly, "The way you drive I'd be lucky to even hold a map, let alone try and read it."

"I haven't even driven yet," Sara pointed out, growing quiet as the waiter came to take their order. She rattled off her own order, crossing her arms on the table.

"I'll just have a salad," Greg followed in behind her, handing off his menu. It caused Sara to raise an eyebrow.

"A salad? When was the last time you had just a salad?"

He held his hands up, obviously irritated, "I know the smell of meat bothers you, so I figured I'd survive one meal without it."

She blinked, growing quiet. "You would really do that…just for me?"

He frowned, "You seemed surprised."

Sara smiled, looking away. "It's just really sweet of you that's all…no one ever does anything like that for me."

Greg shrugged it off, pulling the small map from his pocket. "We're not too far off the main road; it'll put us behind about an hour…plus an hour for eating here."

"We don't have stay if you don't want to," Sara interjected quickly. Stopping here had been her idea after all.

Greg shook his head, "Believe me, I want to stay. Never wanted to leave Vegas in the first place."

"Why?"

"It's senseless to drive across the entire state to retrieve information the Oregon lab can just send us. I still need the field experience; I mean, what do they expect me to learn out of this? How to drive?"

She was tempted to answer in affirmation on that last statement, but held back. Instead she tried to be positive, "You'll get some experience out of this. While we're there we can check out their lab, see how things are done, and we still have to rework the original crime scene."

"Sara…it's on the side of a back road next to a forest. What's going to be left?"

"We just do what we're told," she reminded him, picking up her fork as their meals were placed before them. "When you get to be supervisor you can send some poor unfortunate soul off on their own wild goose chase. But right now, we eat, we get back on the road, and complain about it later."

TBC