It wasn't my intention to take so long with posting chapter one, but as I mentioned in my last 'Something Happens' chapter, I've been battling writer's block lately.
Thanks for the reviews. And, uhm…, we're going back in time for now, so that nobody is confused ;)
Chapter 1: Guesses
Earlier
Greg yawned. It was certainly not out of boredom for they were busy enough, but because he was tired. He did not even try to hide it from Sara whose amused eyebrows raising he could see out of the corner of his eyes.
"I'm just tired," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes, before he looked at the clock at the wall.
Their shift had still not progressed very far. It was going to be a long night.
"I didn't say anything," Sara returned, glancing down at the papers in front of her again.
"But you implied it," Greg complained, yawning again. He wished they would actually simply go over paperwork. It would at least give him the opportunity to have a cup of coffee in his reach while it was a big no-no with them handling evidence.
"So? In which part of my silence did you read that?" his girlfriend wanted to know, standing up to take a box of evidence from the table at the other side of the room, bringing it over to her seat.
While he would usually enjoy some teasing with Sara, Greg was having trouble to focus at all this night, so he remained silent now, grimacing then.
"I guess I'm too tired for that," he admitted.
"Well, hopefully you're not too tired for work," Sara returned dryly, starting to compare the list she was holding with the items contained in the evidence box. She was focused on doing that while Greg watched her for a moment, before he continued working as well. He stopped again after a minute though.
"Was that a call on the carpet?" he asked carefully. Sara frowned, checking the last item on her list, before she walked around the table, leaning next to Greg to look at what he was doing. Greg smiled at her nervously, knowing she would not do anything inappropriate at work, but enjoying her closeness all the same.
"Don't worry so much, Greg," she told him quietly. "I'd tell you if something was wrong."
Greg nodded silently, trying to focus on his work in front of him. . "So, what's wrong with this case?" He glanced at Sara again who was still hovering next to him.
"I think we have to focus on the motive." She looked at him, expectantly.
"Grissom would say," Greg pointed out, turning to her, leaning on the table, "that we're not about the motive, but about the evidence." Greg wondered why he felt the need to quote Grissom here. While he had certainly learned a lot from his boss, he had done so from Sara as well, and Grissom was not always right either.
"I say that because what if the killer throws the murder weapon into the sea? We'd never be able to retrieve it-"
"Vegas isn't exactly close to the ocean," Greg noticed.
Sara narrowed her eyes. "It's hypothetical."
"I know," Greg smiled. "I was just messing with you."
Sara brushed it off, going on, "He showers, trashes the clothes, makes sure there's no blood, no GSR left."
"Motive still wouldn't help us, since there's no motive safe for the killing itself, so there's no connection to the killer," Greg shrugged, leaning onto the table.
"I just wanted to point out that only looking at the forensics is not always going to lead to the killer; it's not always enough." Sara stood up again, walking around Greg to a box on the other side of it. "But we can look at what we have, and see if we can find a clue to the motive in there." She lifted the box, putting in on the table. "That's what we brought back from the scene last night…" She emptied the box, putting several bags of evidence in front of Greg who glanced back and forth between them and Sara.
Sara had noticed that he was tired of course, but actually she had gotten just as little sleep as he had. Living together had made sure that they learned everything about each other's sleeping habits and Greg had been more and more surprised how little Sara was actually sleeping, even on a regular schedule, when they were not pulling any doubles.
Greg took one of the bags from the pile, opening it with gloved hands.
"That's really…" he trailed off, leaning over the table to get the bag Sara had checked earlier. She watched while he rummaged in it, smiling lightly to herself. She loved how he could get into a case once he found a clue.
"Here," he said suddenly excitedly. "I knew I had seen this."
"What?"
Greg held a card in front of Sara's eyes with the back of the card towards her so that she could only see that it was a card in the size of a playing card with a strange motive at the back. He turned it around slowly, showing her that the picture on the other side was the tarot death card, causing Sara to lift her eyebrows.
"So, where did you get this from?" she questioned a sniggering Greg.
"Content of vic's pocket," Greg read aloud the label of the evidence bag he was holding and Sara recognized Nick's handwriting.
"So you think because he got that card," Sara emphasized the last two words, "he died?" Her incredulity spoke clearly out of her tone.
"Don't tell me you think that too?" Greg asked, obviously thrilled. Sara gave him a stern look, before Greg went on to empty another bag on the table, this time belonging to the other case, pulling an identical looking card out of it. "I knew I had seen this before."
Sara looked surprised for a moment, before she frowned.
"Ehm, Greg. Last night's victim drowned in his bath tube while the other one was shot. It wasn't some card that killed them."
"I didn't say it did," Greg pointed out, looking playfully outraged.
Sara was laughing at him quietly. Her thoughts went to the plans she had. She had been thinking about it for a while, wondering and doubting if it was a good idea, but had until now come to the point that she thought it to be.
Greg shrugged. "But the cards are there, you know."
Sara nodded at Greg's statement, returning from her non-work-related thoughts to the task at hand. "They are," she said slowly, wondering only for a moment about possible explanations for it. It was not what they were looking for though, there had to be another clue.
Greg looked at her inquiringly. "Do you want to take a break? You look like you need one."
"It's rather you who needs one, loser," Sara remarked, but put down the file she was holding while Greg stood up.
"I can't believe you can be awake with so little sleep," he complained, while Sara dragged him out of the room. She let go of him once they were out in the hallway, looking around for a moment if she could see any of her co-workers.
"I just can," she shrugged. "And it was actually you who kept us up."
"Where do you want to go?" Greg distracted, his stomach grumbling audible.
"It's not like every place has open 24 hours…"
The quiet sound from a radio was almost the only thing one could hear at the place at that time of the night. Only from time to time sounded the talks from the staff through the room where Greg and Sara were sitting. Greg looked at the menu in his hand, watched by Sara whose gaze became more and more questioning.
"Have you finally picked something?" she wanted to know.
"Well, I'd like to try all that stuff," Greg murmured, an embarrassed grin on his face when he saw Sara's expression.
"Our break doesn't last forever Greg…" It was not like it really mattered, since they would work overtime anyway, but she was not in the mood to explain a two-hours-absence to anybody, and it would probably take that long, if she did not tell Greg to hurry up a bit.
"Almost there…" he said slowly.
"Greg, it's not like we're here for the last time. You can try the other stuff the next time," Sara pointed out.
"True." Greg was still looking at the menu while Sara smiled.
"You're smiling," he stated, but there was somewhat of a question in it.
"Pick your meal," she told him impatiently.
Later when they were eating, Greg was just taking a gulp from his second cup of coffee, when Sara asked him suddenly, "What do you think about us both taking a day or two off?"
Greg looked up from his plate. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Sara ensured him quickly. "Actually everything's alright, I just thought we could spend some time together off from work…"
"You're sure nothing is wrong?" Greg insisted, having stopped eating.
Sara frowned, shaking her head, and Greg pointed at his food.
"This tastes odd," he grimaced, shoving his plate aside and glancing thoughtfully at the menu that was lying on the other side of the table.
"You chose it, you know."
"Yeah. So I'll ask Grissom for a day off then?" Greg emptied his cup of coffee, rejoicing in the knowledge that he had still some of his own stored at the lab.
"Ask for two."
Greg grinned at her, and Sara knew that she loved him.
TBC
