Disclaimer: broken recordish: I don't own them.

A/N: Well, I haven't updated this story in a while… was busy with other stories… yeah :D, but here comes finally the last chapter of this one, so this is the end of this story… for now.

Thanks to singingstarryknights for betareading. :D


Chapter 8: Efforts

Sara had not said anything since Greg's announcement. She had risen from her chair and started to tidy up what they had used for breakfast, or whatever you wanted to call their meal in the afternoon. Greg was getting worried now, thanks to the silence. She had her back to him while she was storing away unused dishes. She closed the door of the cupboard and he dared to speak.

"Sara," he started, but she walked away, avoiding looking at him. He sighed, following her after a minute and found her piling her stuff together, obviously preparing to leave.

"Sara, please don't go."

She stuffed the last thing in her bag and Greg noticed that she was even able to zip up the zipper of the bag in an angry way.

"Look who's talking," she said bitterly, and somehow Greg was even relieved that she had finally broken her silence. He could handle any situation way better when she was at least talking with him. As long as he got her to stay long enough to talk, as she was already on her way to the front door.

"Don't make it harder for me than it already is," he pleaded, following her. She stopped dead in front of the door, leaving her head hanging. Greg was taken aback.

Sara opened the door, stepped outside and was already closing it behind her, when Greg called after her. The sound of the door being shut was followed by a frustrated groan from Greg.

His job problems had been solved quickly, only to be replaced by trouble with Sara he did not know how to work out. He could understand her feelings; it was not easy. But it was not easy for him either. He would leave not only her, but also his friends behind. Still, he could be thankful for the solution Grissom had offered him. Greg would only have to come by the lab for the next shift to clear the details with Grissom. He was afraid it would not be as easy as that with Sara. And in a way it was unfair of her. She had told him they would work it out together. Maybe she had not reckoned that his job problem would be solved so quickly, and that without that she had been able to do anything. And of course she had hoped that it would not take him so far away, although Greg thought that they were still comparatively lucky. It could have been further away, after all.


He had not seen her for the rest of the day. When Greg entered the lab shortly before midnight, he was still wondering where she had gone. And what she would do. And how they would be able to deal with everything.

He saw her coming out of Grissom's office and their gazes met. Her expression was unreadable though and she turned to walk down the corridor, away from him. He looked after her briefly, before he shook his head and walked through the door she had left open into the office of his boss, former boss that is. He would have to deal with Sara later.

Now he would have to finalize the move that would possibly tear them apart, no matter how often Sara had said that they would work it out together. It was not that he had another choice, if he wanted to work in the job he loved. He could not refuse the opportunity Grissom offered him. And still he hoped that this was not the choice between work and Sara, disguised as a simple career decision. He hoped that such a choice would not be necessary.


When Sara had made her way to Grissom's office, she had not really been sure what she actually wanted there. Thank him for the opportunity he was giving Greg? Yell at him because of the opportunity he was giving Greg that would make him move hundreds of miles away? Quit? Ask him if there was another job vacant at the SF crime lab that he knew of?

She walked into his office and he looked up to her, an asking expression on his face. After all, she should not be here, having been suspended for three days. Sara did not waste any time on explanations, but decided what she would do, why she was actually here.

"I want to take some days off. After the suspension that is." Considering the amount of overtime she had saved up it was not really something he could refuse to give her.

So Grissom nodded simply, frowning slightly. It was not something he would have ever expected to hear from her. Sara smiled briefly before leaving the room. And after all of that, she would go back to work. That was what she always did, anyway.

She saw Greg coming along the hallway when she walked out of Grissom's office. She met his gaze, turning away to leave, however. She heard him closing the door of his former boss' office behind him.

Sara made her way home, to her own place, but only to pick up some things. It was only two hours after she had left the lab that she stopped in front of Greg's apartment door. She rang and he opened it, looking surprised, pleasantly surprised.

"Can I come in?" she asked simply.

"Sure."

She sat down on his couch, looking at him. "You'll go to Frisco?"

"Yeah." It was straightforward how he said it, but she could see the anxiety in his expression.

"We should try it, Sara. It doesn't have to break us up," he contended hopefully. "I mean, you will have your space, I won't crowd you that way. Isn't that what you want?"

Maybe it was what she wanted. Or what she had wanted. Or what she had thought she wanted. But now that it was there, she didn't like it. She wanted to keep her independence of course, didn't want to have to cater everything to the needs of a boyfriend. But what she wanted was to be with him, to wake up with him in the morning, or in the afternoon in their case, fall asleep with him after a long day, wanted to talk to him, hear his jokes every day, live with him.

But they had no other choice than to do all that in a limited amount of time now, whenever they would be able to see each other. But she knew that she wanted to try it, too. She did not want to give up on their relationship, their love, so easily.

"We can try it, Greg," she agreed with him, smiling encouragingly and he hugged her rejoicing.


Sara walked along the street, getting a look at a tiny part of the city she had lived in for years. It had been several years ago that she had left, and now she was only back for visiting. She realized that she had already reached the apartment complex that was her destination and that had been the starting point for her walk as well.

Not much later she was standing in front of the door of a flat, ringing although she had a key. She could have let herself in, but somehow it seemed impolite. It was not her place after all and considering that Greg was new here as well, he would probably appreciate it, if she did not fall into the house. It took only a moment before he opened the door and let her in, smiling.

"All sorted out at work?" she asked him. Greg had only gone in for a couple of hours today to clear all formalities; his real first day would be tomorrow.

"Yeah," he nodded, taking her into his arms and pulling her with him down on the couch that appeared almost strange in the new surroundings. In Sara's mind it somehow still belonged in Greg's old flat in Las Vegas.

"And you'll stay until the day after tomorrow?" He wanted to know, giving her no opportunity to answer directly though, as he pressed his lips onto hers. Some minutes later Sara finally sat up on the couch, leaning at the backrest.

"Yeah, I'll leave then in the early morning to be back for my shift at night."

Greg would be working dayshift here, so she would stay for the night after his first day. "I miss you already."

Sara shook her head. "Don't. I'll visit you again soon and we can talk on the phone."

And that was what Sara really intended to do. It had at least an advantage now that she had saved up so much vacation time. Now she would actually take it and come over to Greg as often as possible.

"And maybe, one day, when Ecklie's getting too much on my nerves in Vegas, I'll move in here with you," she added. In a way she was joking. But not completely. Going back to San Francisco was still an option, especially if she found a job at the crime lab there. One never knew.

"Or I come back to Vegas, after somebody has kicked out the current lab director, and decided that graveyard needs some more people after all," Greg suggested, leaning back next to Sara. They didn't know if any of these options would become true any time soon, but they were there, and for now Greg and Sara would go on, despite the distance, with the intention of staying close in their relationship nevertheless.

The End