Thanks to Emmithar for betareading. :D
Chapter 2: Greg plays
Greg gave Sara a short goodbye kiss, stroking her shoulder, before she climbed into her car. He watched her drive away, and then made his way to his own car.
He did not have to go far, before he reached his destination and drove his car into the parking lot of a local gym where he had been a member for a while, although he often did not have time to actually work out there. When he came from a double or triple shift once again, he usually did not feel like going there, although he had learned that he could somehow still manage to get through a training session alive on only two hours of sleep.
When he was leaving the changing rooms, Greg could already hear the beats of the music that was the background sound for their work out. He regularly wished the instructor would have a better taste for music; that the songs he played were not exactly on Greg's favorites list was one thing, but that he played the small sample of songs again and again during every training session did not make it any better. So Greg tried to concentrate on the beats only, ignoring the rest, they were the important thing to keep a rhythm with their blows and kicks later on anyway.
The first minutes were dedicated to their warming-up, so Greg followed the easy jumping up and down, finding some childish joy in this simple movement.
Sara was not into this thing at all; he would have to force her to come if he wanted her to accompany him. That was not something he was intending to do; he was happy enough when he could convince her to participate in some of his plans for their free time together, which was not too extended anyway.
When the instructor in the front started with an easy combination of blows and kicks, Greg easily imitated his motions, having done these movements often before, so that he had still time to let his thoughts wander.
He would meet Sara at work tonight again; it was one of the fewer days on that they did not go in together. When their relationship had started to develop, much to the surprise to both of them as well, nobody in the lab had said anything against it or had even hinted that there was a problem. They had probably been much too relieved to see Greg back safe and sound as to bother him in any way about what he was doing in his own time, since he and Sara were keeping it pretty low-profile at work.
Later then people had simply been used to the fact that he and Sara were together, it had become some kind of normality that was not questioned anymore. Nobody gave them a second look when they arrived together. They did not do that every day though, only when Sara stayed at Greg's place or when they had been out somewhere together.
They hardly ever stayed at Sara's place. It was probably due to Sara's needs, Greg guessed. If they were at his place and she did not feel comfortable, she could go home to her own place any time, not that this had ever been the case so far. But if they were at her place and she did not feel well, he was there and she could not simply throw him out, well, she could do it, but she would not want to of course. If he came to her place, it was still somewhat of an intrusion into her privacy, she kept even her place rather to herself, although they were a couple now.
They had never openly talked about that issue, but Greg could feel that it was this way, and he realized that he just had to accept it like he had to accept that Sara still seemed to hold herself somewhat back in their relationship, a feeling he could not get rid of, while he had not yet been able to determine why she did it.
Two hours later Greg left the gym freshly showered, exhausted, but at the same time surprisingly relaxed. He stopped by his apartment, exchanging the used sport clothes in his bag with a change of clothes for work. He left again quickly, already making his way to the lab, stopping only briefly in between to buy some takeout that he wanted to take with him to the lab. When he arrived there, he found Sara unsurprisingly already at work.
Smiling he entered the room where she was browsing several files, sitting down next to her.
"Knowing you I guess you haven't eaten anything yet," he said. She turned her head to him, arching an eyebrow. Greg still smiled positively.
"I tend to forget it sometimes," Sara admitted.
"Well, it's good then you have your Greg who brings something for you." Greg shoved the food he had brought with him into her direction. Sara seemed to waver between her files and the food briefly, before she moved the files to the side and opened the food.
"That's nice of you."
"It is," he smiled complacent. Sara once again lifted her eyebrows at him, wearing one of the expressions he could not resist bringing on her face. Reaching out to her, he was once again sure that he was one lucky man. He kissed her affectionally in a moment when she had not expected it, but when he pulled back, she seemed to glow a bit. She finished unwrapping the food, handing Greg his portion, and Greg could see the grin she was trying to hide.
When Greg leaned in to her again, she stopped him.
"Remember we're at the lab," she told him in a bit cooler tone than she had intended.
"We're still on our own time," Greg argued apparently unimpressed, entangling his hand in hers. Sara suddenly brought a plastic fork full of food in front of his mouth and Greg took it hungrily, moaning then mixed with non-understandable curses.
"Didn't think … this is still so hot," he brought out finally, while Sara was still laughing.
A knock at the open door caught their attention then.
"Hey, you two lovebirds," Catherine greeted them, suppressing a smile.
"Hey," Greg brought out. They both were glad that it was not Grissom who had caught them. He probably would not have voiced his disapproval, but would have shown it in his whole demeanor.
"I got a scene for you, once you're finished here," Catherine told them with a knowing smile. She had been the one who had openly most approved of their relationship. Sara had not been able to help thinking that this was because Catherine had never been a special fan of separating professional and personal life anyway, but decided then that there had to be other reasons as well, even though she could only suspect them.
"Okay," Greg nodded. That they were still teamed up on cases had become a part of the normality at the lab as well, and they were both glad about it; their good working relationship had been the base for everything else after all. And that although exactly this working relationship had sometimes suffered in the past, causing setbacks in their private relationship as well. Greg hoped that they had left those problems behind them once and for all, but he sometimes wondered if that was not too much to hope for.
Catherine left and Sara rubbed her forehead.
"That was awkward," she stated.
"It's awkward for you to be seen with me?" Greg asked as seriously as he could. Sara's head turned to him abruptly.
"No… no, no, of course not."
Greg grinned, once again leaning in to her. He had been right. One lucky man.
Sara smiled. "Stop playing now, Greg, and eat. There's work to do."
"Yes, ma'am." Still grinning he started to shove the food into his mouth quickly, Sara watching him amusedly, while she picked some bites from her own portion.
Greg stopped the car and turned off the engine.
"Everything alright?" he asked joking, looking at Sara on the passenger's seat.
"Still alive," she returned, carrying forth one of their favorite teases. Another thing that had become normality was that Greg was regularly driving them to the scenes. In the past Sara usually had let him only drive on rare occasion when he had badgered her enough. But now it was as if she had given a bit of control out of her hands.
Greg reached out to her and took her left hand in his, giving it a short squeeze.
"Only work now, Greg, no play," Sara reminded him smiling.
"I know," Greg sighed, letting go of her. He opened the door of the car and got out, walking around to the trunk then and taking both his and Sara's kit out of it. He looked at the house at the other side of the street that was taped off with the black-yellow crime scene tape, while Sara came walking up to him.
"Here we go again," he said quietly.
TBC
