Author's Note: Wow, I must be worth something as a writer, LOL! All the positive feedback I've gotten is awesome. You guys completely rock...and that's an understatement. By the way, I've decided to go back and change the chapter titles to different songs and add the lyrics along with them.
This chapter is based on a song by one of my all time favorite songs by one of my favorite solo artists, Avril Lavigne (yes, I'm a Good Charlotte and Avril fan, but no, I'm not a bopper), so I will include the lyrics.

Chapter Two: Anything But Ordinary

Although everyone at the lab thought Greg acted like he was twelve, for the first time since he was really twelve, he actually felt like it. He wasn't normal, and he knew it. He showed it a lot around his coworkers, but he could never show the real Greg as much as he wanted to, or else he'd be fired. Somehow, though, the vibes that he got from Leila told him that he could be himself and she wouldn't judge him. Greg had never felt this secure and comfortable around someone in his entire life. He had always been the odd one out, but he felt that with Leila, he felt that fit in. He felt that they were on the same wavelength, and he'd barely said ten words to the woman. He was far too nervous, though, to strike up a conversation.

Sure, he felt that he could be himself around her, but never enough to strike up a conversation. She was so unlike anyone else, he could already see it. But he was Greg. He wasn't like everyone else. He wasn't exactly...ordinary. Not that ordinary was good, because he could see that Leila was anything but ordinary. She wasn't like any person that he'd met before. That was one of the major attributes to her charm. She was just too good for him. That was the only reason he couldn't make a conversation to her. He had to, though. He'd be working close beside her, and they needed to have a little trust with each other, so he had to let at least some of his cover up crumble for a little bit, before long, anyway.

Sometimes I get so weird, I even freak myself out
I laugh myself to sleep, it's my lullaby
Sometimes I drive so fast just to feel the danger
I want to scream it makes me feel alive
Is it enough to love, is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out and leave me here to bleed
Is it enough to die; somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary, please

Leila noticed Greg's nervous behavior and pointed to the nearest door. "So, shall we start the tour here?" she tried to ease his mind by speaking first, not realizing that what she'd just pointed to was a major attribute to what was distressing Greg to begin with.
Greg shrugged and nodded nervously. "Sure...this is the trace elements lab. But we really don't wanna go in there, because the guy that works there is a real ass," he let out a little laugh. Then, he stopped laughing and sighed deeply at the thought that even though it wasn't entirely his fault, Hodges, the trace elements tech, had been a key player in causing the explosion that had changed his life for the worse.
She laughed a little, too, and tried to calm Greg down a little bit. "Do you think he gets laid enough?" she winked at him, knowing that even though he was sexy at this point, he was probably sexier when he smiled. "Or has it been so long that his boxers or briefs...or whatever he wears--if anything--have crust on them?"

Greg couldn't help but laugh. A woman his age, who was gorgeous and had his same sense of humor...and she was really real? This had to be some sort of dream or something like that. Greg hadn't even slept long enough to dream lately though, so no, it wasn't a dream. "Can we not think of him that way please? I'm not hoping to puke today..." he flashed Leila a small grin.
Leila shrugged and flashed a slight smile. "Well, why don't you let me meet him? My quick-wittedness may polite-ify him a bit..." she winked as she almost drowned in Greg's brown eyes. In those eyes, she could see so much hurt; more hurt than a man like him should have to endure.
Greg laughed at Leila's word. "Polite-ify him?" he asked with a smirk. "Polite-ify--that would definitely be a word I haven't heard before; did you make that up?" he asked, partially knowing the answer, but still wanting to hear Leila's voice speaking to him.
She nodded as Greg opened the door to Hodges' lab for her. "I do that a lot...I have a tendency to make up words when I can't think of anything to go along with the situation...especially for chemicals," she laughed a little. "So, if I ask for 'that blue stuff,' you typically wanna ask me whether I mean this or that..."

Greg nodded and grinned. He'd often asked himself if he needed to use 'that blue stuff,' when talking about certain chemicals. "Gotcha..."
Hodges looked up from a microscope and gave Leila a sarcastic smile. "I assume you're the new DNA tech?" he looked back down at his microscope, completely blocking Leila's answer out, since he already knew what it was going to be. "You're Detective Sidle's sister, right?"
Leila looked at Greg, mumbled "Crusty underwear..." under her breath, heard Greg laugh out loud, then looked back to Hodges. "Yes, I'm Sara's sister. Leila Sidle...nice to meet you..." she held out her hand for him to shake.
Hodges didn't even look up from his microscope while he said, "David Hodges...same to you. Listen, I'm busy. I'm hovering over about six different trace samples from two different scenes. So, come back later."
Leila scoffed, rolled her eyes, turned on her heel and headed to the door. "You know, common courtesy is to look someone in the eye when talking to them. It shows mutual respect...but then, when you don't even look them in the eye when they're talking to you, or when you're talking to them...maybe it means that you don't deserve the respect," she looked to Greg and shrugged. "Gonna continue on with the tour?" she asked.
Greg was still practically rolling on the floor over her 'crusty underwear' comment, but when she handled Hodges with the same amount of disrespect that Hodges handled most other people with, he was taken aback. Greg's respect for Leila Sidle had just increased. "Yeah, let's go..."

After he closed the door, he was presented with a little more confidence, when it came to Leila. She had a radiantly sexy glow in his eyes. After Greg scratched her surface, where with most people, he would be repulsed, with Leila he was charmed. She was smart, and not just with intellect, but with wit too. Not only that but she was seriously pretty, but she was funny and she seemed nice. As much as he wanted to take action and tell her all of the things in his head, though, Greg's self-assurance had gone down the drain since the day of the explosion. He didn't know how a few lingering burns on his back could ruin his life, but they seemed to be the only thing on his brain, to date.

Leila still noticed the uncertainty in Greg's eyes and wondered why it was even there. Someone like Greg had to be confident. He had every reason in the world to be sure about himself. She always seemed to notice that the only men who had confidence were the ones who didn't deserve it. She wondered if it was too soon to seize the chance and flirt with Greg. After all, she'd only just met him and didn't want to seem like a slut. But, she knew she wasn't a slut, so that was all that mattered in the end. As Greg turned in her direction to lead her to the next room, she grinned and lightly tickled just below his rib cage, but made sure she wasn't spotted by any of her coworkers. She didn't want to be presumed a slacker.

Greg jumped a little and turned in her direction. Not because she scared him, but because he was taken a little off guard. The old, pre-explosion Greg would have seen something like that coming, but the new Greg didn't seem to be paying attention. He was surprised at himself, but still, he reverted to old Greg mode and decided to take action and flirt back. He reached his right hand over and, when Leila wasn't looking, tapped her right shoulder. The oldest trick in the book, but still, Leila seemed to fall for it, because she looked behind her to see who'd tapped her. Greg grinned 'innocently' and tickled both of her sides, right under her rib cage, while her back was turned from him.

To walk within the lines would make my life so boring
I want to know that I have been to the extremes
So, knock me off my feet, come on now give it to me
Anything to make me feel alive
Is it enough to love, is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out and leave me here to bleed
Is it enough to die; somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary, please

She jumped, whirled around and pursed her lips at him. "That's not even cool..." she tilted her head to the left side and glared at Greg in playful anger.
"Me?" Greg pulled his head back innocently, as though he was shocked at her accusation. "I'd never do that..." he clasped his hands like an angel and looked toward the ceiling.
She shoved him lightly in the shoulder and crossed her arms. "Let's just continue with the tour, huh?" she stuck her tongue out and waited for him to recover from her shove.
Greg nodded, then cringed slightly as they passed the room that formerly housed the fume hood and all of Greg's tools-of-the-trade. Now, what remained was a pile of ash, which was just now getting around to being rebuilt. He noticed that Leila's glance was sort of fixated on the room.
She looked over at him and gave off a curious glance. "Greg...if you don't mind me asking...what happened there?" she asked. "I mean...Sara told me some, but she was a little sketchy on the details..." she explained, getting a tone of understanding in her voice. "I'll understand if you don't want to say--"
He shook his head and shrugged. "I don't mind..." he was a little surprised, to say the least, that he was opening up to Leila, but he couldn't help it. "I'm the best person to ask, since I was--" he paused, wondering if he should open himself up that wide. "--right there when it happened..." he pointed to around the center of the room.

Leila looked interested but confused. "How?" she could see that she was starting to care a lot about Greg Sanders, though she barely knew him. "Well, I mean, I know you were, like, working there...but how did it happen?"
Greg could see that Leila's brown eyes held so much concern. It was so sweet. He figured that if she showed him concern, he should tell her the truth. "Well...it was partly because Hodges left the hot plate on in the fume hood..." he paused, looked at Catherine as she brushed past them on her way to a scene or something, and then as soon as she was out of sight, he continued. "But it was also partly because Catherine put a substance that we hadn't identified under the fume hood with it..." he looked down to the floor. "And I was thrown out the window...my back is covered in burns..."
Leila's eyes widened. "You were in the--in the room?" her eyes were pushed from curious to sympathetic in a split second. "Oh...my God...Greg..." she walked toward Greg and put her arms around him in a gentle hug. "That must have been horrifying..."
Greg grinned at the fact that a beautiful woman was hugging him and not slapping him in the face. He sensitively hugged her back and tried to calm her down. "I'm okay, Leila...I made it through, that's all that matters, right?" he asked her with a smile.

She shook her head. "No...that has to be traumatizing. Oh my God..." she looked at the burn on my cheek. "Is that where you got that from?" she asked.
He was shocked. "Yeah..." he nodded. "But I am okay..." It was almost as though she saw straight through the 'completely ok' façade he put on. Sure, he told her, but he tried to keep the look on his face strong so that no one else could see his pain. But Leila saw right through it.
She shook her head again. "Tell me the truth. That's why you were so jumpy today...and so that's why you were so sketchy around Catherine and that Hodges guy. I have to be honest, I don't see you as the type to be threatened by creeps like him..." she flashed him a million dollar grin. "And plus, Catherine seems really nice..."
When Leila grinned, Greg almost forgot what they were talking about and went weak in the knees. "Yeah, that's why..." he answered her. "But, Leila...I am okay..."
She looked at him as though she could see through everything. "Greg..." she raised her eyebrow at him. "Are you honestly, seriously okay?"

One thing was for sure; Leila Sidle was anything but ordinary. She saw right through every little thing that Greg was trying to hide. He was not okay. He was far from okay, really. "No, I'm not...but can we talk about this another time and just continue with the tour of the lab?" he asked with a slight sigh. "I mean, I appreciate the concern, I just...you understand, right?"
She nodded and waited for him to show her to the next room. She could see a definite connection between she and Greg Sanders, and it was a great thing. He was a great guy. Something had to be made of what was happening. But not just after they met. It would have to take time.

Let down your defenses, use no common sense
If you look, you will see that this world is a
Beautiful, accident, turbulent, succulant, opulent, permanent, no way.
I wanna taste it, don't wanna waste it away.
Sometimes I get so weird, I even freak myself out
I laugh myself to sleep, it's my lullaby
Is it enough, is it enough, is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out and leave me here to bleed.
Is it enough to die; somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary, please

~~

Author's Note: Too cheesy? Tell me what you think...