Warrick's POV:
We came bearing chocolate soy ice-cream. Nick and I stood on Sara's door stoop trying to decide exactly how to approach her; I think out first fault was trying to approach Sara like she was evidence. We approached her so clinically in the past. I'm not sure if we ever really treated her like a friend.
"You're lucky I answered the door. Greg might have tried to take you both on at once. What the hell is that crap?" Sophia asked as she pointed to the pint of soy ice-cream in my hands.
"It's volatile. It's Sara's favor dessert," I replied as she stepped aside to let us in.
"God, that looks disgusting. They're watching CourtTV. It's not my place, but be careful with them. Greg feels betrayed because you didn't care about Sara. Nick, Sara's vulnerable . . . at least try to approach her with some semblance of care," Sophia said as we followed her into the living room where Sara and Greg were finishing their breakfasts.
"Is it too early for ice-cream?" I asked as I handed Sara the pint of the soy stuff. She tried to smile. I could tell that she had been crying. Her cheeks were puffy; there were faint black stains down her cheeks from the mascara that I never knew she wore. Greg immediately turned to us and scanned us with immediate disapproval. He moved a little closer to Sara to protect her from what he saw as the enemy. I wondered if he would have ever stood up for me like that.
"No, I guess it's not," Sara replied.
"Sara, Greg . . . I'm sorry. I'm not going to make up some excuse for my behavior. I'm sorry I stopped seeing you as a friend . . . I'm not even sure why that happened," Nick rambled. He always began to ramble when he was nervous.
"Ditto for me," I replied. I wasn't sure how to say it any better.
"I'll put the whatever the hell this foul smelling stuff is in the freezer," Sophia said breaking the silence. I wondered when Sophia became the funny one; I always assumed that Greg was the funny one. I immediately began to worry that the job had begun to harden him. I knew Sara tried to protect him from that; I hoped that he hadn't started to become like the rest of us.
"Sophia is a meat-eater," Greg commented as if we would have never guessed. Sara looked at him funny for a second before laughing. It was the joyful laugh that I never would have guessed could have come out of Sara.
"I'm sure that they would have never guessed that, Genius," Sophia said as she ushered us into Sara's living room.
"I did only miss one question on the written proficiency exam . . . thanks to my lovely ladies," Greg teased. Sara blushed and Sophia threw a pillow at him. I don't know if we were ever that close as a team. I would have never guessed that Sara and Greg would bond with Sophia as they had. I would have never guessed that Sara could be friends with a woman rumored to be dating Grissom.
We sat down on a sofa near the bay window. I looked at Sara and immediately felt like I was at a loss of words. Sophia, Greg, and Grissom had fixed what was wrong with Sara in a week; the 'old' nightshift struggled to do that for years. It made me feel inadequate.
"Do you want to hear the story?" Sara asked as she looked down at the ground. Sophia was right about Sara being vulnerable, but my grandmother always did say that secrets had a way of coming out whether or not you wanted them to. I think Nick and I weakly nodded.
"I was fourteen years old. I had gone over to my friend's house to listen her new Kinks album. I guess my father had hit the bottle early that afternoon. He had lost his job a year earlier and hadn't bothered to look for another job. His 'new' job was sitting on the couch and drinking all day," Sara said as she began to tremble slightly. Greg put his hand over hers; she looked at him . . . thankful for that little bit of support.
"My older brother still lived at home with us. I guess he made some smart-ass comment to my father about how he had a job, but my father didn't. My father hit him . . . I guess it wasn't a hit . . . it was more of a punch. When my mother found out, she totally lost it. I guess they screamed for hours before my father started beating her. When she was bleeding too badly for him to continue . . . you see my dad was smart . . . he only beat her where clothes would cover the marks . . . my father threatened to hit me until he passed out in an alcoholic coma," Sara continued.
"My mom lost it. She started stabbing him over and over. When I got home, there was still blood in the air . . . there was blood all over the walls. I remember screaming at her to stop as I called 911," Sara said. Her eyes glazed over like she was reliving every moment of that night.
"She was convicted of murder one. I hadn't talked to her until last week . . . I always start to think about her when the anniversary of his death draws near. Last week, I was ready to kill myself when Greg came over. I didn't understand why she needed to kill him until Greg took me to see her," Sara said. The tears were streaming down her face. Her story sucked the air out of my lungs. I couldn't breathe or talk. Nick turned his so we could not see his face; I was sure that he was crying for her. He felt so much for the people around him, or he felt awful for assuming that Sara was just being Sara last week.
"I'm okay now . . . I spent so long thinking my mother killed my father because she was selfish. God, do I ever feel stupid," Sara said as she wiped the tears from her face.
"Sara and I found an attorney to help Laura appeal the court decision. You know, battered woman's syndrome and self-defense," Greg said.
"Don't be so modest. Greg's older brother is going to handle's my mom's case," Sara replied. I think I smiled at her because she smiled back.
"I didn't know that you had an older brother," Nick said.
"You aren't the only one that comes from a large family," Greg said smiling. I would have never known.
"You should see that household. He has five older brothers and a little sister . . . a myriad of nieces and nephews. It's absolutely crazy," Sara said laughing.
"My parents wanted to keep going until they had a daughter," Greg said laughing.
"They could have stopped after you," Sophia teased, "He had the longest hair when he was a teenager."
"It was cool then . . . maybe it was only cool in San Francisco," Greg quipped. I was a little jealous that they knew each other so well.
"It's not as bad as your shaved head," Greg replied. I instantly snapped my head around to look at Sophia . . . trying to picture what she might look like bald.
"I was a Sinead O'Conner fan," Sophia snapped back. Sara was laughing hysterically.
"The difference is that I was a teenager and you were what . . . twenty-something?" Greg replied.
"Sidle, you better bite your tongue . . . we could tell them about the perm that wouldn't quit," Sophia teased. It only made us all laugh harder. "You're turn."
"I had an afro," I said after talking a deep sigh, " . . . because I wanted to be a member of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Nicky, make me look normal again."
"I had my tips frosted white blonde because my older sister told me that it was cool," Nick said as he blushed an extremely bright red.
We fell into the same relaxed conversation that seeming had disappeared over the last three months. I liked it. I missed it. I was happy to know that made things weren't as far gone as I had originally thought they were.
