A/N: Thanks to betareading by WitchGirl, I can present you an at least grammatically proper chapter lol.


Chapter 6: Complications

Greg had hardly noticed that he had fallen, let alone that he had landed hard. He was just busy reminding himself to keep breathing. Opening his eyes, he saw Sara looking down at him in shock.

"Greg, what's wrong? What's wrong with you?" she asked urgently, her hand touching his cheek.

"I don't know," he replied quietly, trembling, but trying to sit up. Sara helped him until he was in a sitting position. "I felt so hot." He tried to stand up, but realized that his legs would not support him at all. Sara's hand moved to his forehead.

"You're really hot."

Greg attempted something like a smile. "I like to hear you saying that." Her hand felt cold against his forehead, just like everything was feeling cold now.

She chuckled lightly, but he could still hear the worry in her voice when she said, "I'll call for help." He tried to nod, but somehow lifting his head seemed too much of an effort right now. He could hear Sara talking but she was not speaking to him, so he figured she was calling for help. His ears were clearly betraying him. Or maybe it was blood rushing in them that made the noise that deafened all other sounds.

He could feel Sara's hand on his forehead again. She said something to him and he opened his eyes. He had not even noticed he had closed them again.

"What?" he coughed.

"Do you have any idea what's wrong with you? How long have you been feeling like this?" she wanted to know.

He shook his head. "No idea. I was feeling alright back at the lab. When we came here, too, I think." Sara looked thoughtful.

"Help will come soon," she said finally. He saw that she took off her vest and the jersey she was wearing underneath, which he had wrongfully identified as a long shirt earlier. She put her vest back on and placed the jersey over him. He was glad for the tiny piece of warmth this was giving him, but he was worried that she would get cold. Then he remembered that it was apparently not that cold, it only felt like that to him. He groaned.

"Greg?"

"Thanks for the jacket," he said quietly.

She did not respond.

"Is somebody coming?" Greg asked.

"Soon." She did not sound convinced.

"Maybe you should go back to the scene and show them the way," he suggested. It would probably bring them here faster. He shuddered.

"I don't want to leave you alone," she refused, taking his hand in hers. Greg smiled, halfway trying to prop himself up, if only to show her that he was not as bad off as she seemed to think. This small movement made his world start to swim though, so he laid back down.

"Come on, it's not that far," he tried to encourage her nevertheless. "Half a mile maybe." It could not be more, if he remembered the walk from the scene right. It had taken them a long while until here, but that was because they had walked very slowly, looking for traces and had stopped often to take pictures. "You'd be back in no time." He trembled more than before and felt like he was going to throw up. As quickly as he could he moved to his side, taking Sara in surprise. It was unnecessary though, for his stomach did not seem to contain anything that wanted out, and he tried to remember when he had eaten the last time.

Greg did not know how long he was lying there. He did not even know if he was conscious all the time, for the world had not stopped swimming and black spots danced in front of his eyes again and again, so that he shut them finally unnerved.

He groaned, and could feel Sara running her hand through his hair, saying something to him which he figured was supposed to be soothing. Why was she still here? She should have gone to make sure that this promised help finally found them. Did she want him to die out here?

If he had not already been trembling so hard, both from the coldness he felt, and whatever made him feel so sick, he would have shuddered even more, for it was the first time that he had actually had this thought. Of course, Sara did not want him to die out here; it was just a frustrated thought due to her still staying with him, but what if he was really going to die? Maybe Sara thought that he would die and did not want to leave him to go for help because of that, either because she did not think he could be helped anymore or because she did not want to risk leaving and coming back finding him dead, or maybe both.

Once again he could feel her taking his hand, this time more firmly than before.

"You're going to be alright," she tried to assure him. Greg wondered if she was really that optimistic.

"I'll just trust that you're right," he said quietly. He opened his eyes again to look at her and saw her nodding. It had grown light by now.

"Do you want to drink something?" she asked. "There's something in your kit, isn't there?"

Greg nodded to the second question, but before he could refuse that he actually wanted something, Sara had reached out to open his kit and take out the half full bottle of water he had put there earlier.

"I don't want it," he said. "Take it," he told her. "I worry that you don't drink enough." He was not sure how serious or non-serious he had meant this, but Sara chucked lightly.

"I'll take a sip, if you take one," she suggested.

"Okay."

Sara opened the bottle, taking a careful sip. Then she held the bottle to Greg's mouth, letting him drink a bit. He had to admit that it actually felt good, even though he did not feel like eating or drinking anything.

"I feel like a little kid," he told her. "One sip for Sara, one sip for Greg." He could see her smiling at this.

"What about another one?" she held up the bottle the content of which had not diminished very much.

"Aren't you afraid I have some bad contagious disease?" Greg asked, meaning it serious this time, even though he was asking in a light tone.

She did not answer his question, but took a big gulp from the bottle this time, before she prompted him to drink more. Finally she emptied the rest of the water, putting the bottle then back into the kit. Greg laughed inwardly that he had thought for a moment that she would trash the bottle in the desert. It would have been very much unlike her.

Then he squirmed, for his insides protested heavily. He tried to control his breathing, while he saw Sara standing up next to him.

"Greg, they're coming."

"About time," he brought out, suppressing any vulgar language.

He never really remembered the ambulance actually arriving and neither could he recollect being moved into the vehicle, but he was pretty sure that they had just driven off when he eventually lost consciousness.


Sara had been relieved when help had finally arrived. She had contemplated walking back to their crime scene all the time, but had not wanted to leave Greg alone. She had been scared, had felt alone for she seemed to be the only one who could help Greg, and yet couldn't help him at all at the same time.

She had not liked that he had lost consciousness in the ambulance but she had been assured quickly that the paramedics were working on it. The ride to the hospital seemed to go over in no time, or maybe it just felt like that afterwards, now that Sara was waiting at the hospital and time seemed to stretch endlessly.

While she stared at the wall, almost ready to count anything on it, she also started wondering again what exactly had happened. She could not imagine that Greg had fallen ill all by himself so suddenly. He had seemed alright during the night. Also the heaviness of it puzzled and scared her. She could not imagine how they would have done it, but…

This could not be the case. Maybe the card had been meant as warning indeed, but Sara had no idea how they could have done it. Poisoned Greg.

It was the most logical explanation that came to her mind. It would explain his sudden illness.

Sara bit her lip, rubbing her eyes to wipe away the tears that had threatened to fall. Greg was going to be alright. If he had indeed been poisoned, they would certainly know of a way to treat him. She had not been able to give them any information about what had happened with Greg, but she was sure the doctors would figure out what Greg had been poisoned with. And then they would be able to help him.

Sara felt sick at the thought that it was maybe not that easy.

TBC