"No way!" Warrick said in disbelief, as he poured himself coffee.
"Its all true," Sara shrugged smiling.
"What is?" Grissom questioned coming into the coffee room.
"Sara thinks she's solved the arson case."
"Really?" Grissom said, interested.
"Yeah, the liquid was a hydrocarbon…." Sara started.
"As you suspected…." Grissom filled in
"Yes, as I suspected, with chains consisting of about 15 carbons…."
"……which makes the fuel kerosene……" Nick interrupted, which resulted in Sara
whacking him on the arm
"Steal my thunder why don't you!" she exclaimed in jest.
"Kerosene, AKA jet fuel," Grissom said, with a small smile.
"The husband was having an affair with a wife of a jet pilot," Sara said
triumphantly, the fuel was the only to link anything together.
"Hell have no wrath like a woman's scorn," Cath said, amused at the story.
They all laughed.
Then there was a prevailing silence.
It occurred after every humorous conversation. Sara looked to the clock. "He'll
be back in five hours, thirteen minutes, and fifty-two seconds,"
Everyone was surprised at this. Everyone knew she was of course referring to
Greg, but the fact that she could look at the clock, and just precisely tell
the time like that.
Grissom assumed she'd probably been watching the clock too much over the last
week.
"He will be back, wont he?" Nick asked the room, fear in his eyes.
Cath patted him on the shoulder, "sure he will Nicky," she said with a sad
smile.
Grissom regarded his team; sitting, comforting each other, fuelled by caffeine.
He remembered the day Greg switched the coffee to de-café to watch the teams'
reaction without their daily fix…. damn he missed Greg.
Grissom headed for the door, cup of coffee in hand. Although he would have
liked to sit with his team, unlike Cath, he couldn't make promises to them–
they'd all be hollow. He couldn't be sure if Greg was coming back, no-one
could.
"Where you going Griss?" Warrick questioned, leaning back in his chair.
Grissom stood still for a moment, contemplating how to answerer this question.
'Where are you going?' Was asked a lot these days, almost as though they were
making sure no-one else was leaving in the same manner as Greg.
"The roof," he answered nonchalantly.
He left, and the team were left to exchange confused glances.
Grissom never visited the roof.
--------
"Greg?" Grissom questioned, shocked to see the outline of the missing lab tech
against the sky.
"Hey Griss," he answered, still facing the landscape. His tone was normal.
"Greg," Grissom repeated, walking up beside him, "you're on the roof?" He was
extremely perplexed at the situation.
"Now we know why you're the CSI, not me." Greg said with a light smile, looking
to Grissom.
Grissom looked back with a smile, not just because he realised the
senselessness of his question, but also because, Greg was there.
He looked ok.
Well, physically.
"You don't seem to be surprised, you know, to see me?" Greg said, there was
little concern on his face, "I guess that means Melanie's been here." He said
sadly.
"Yes," Grissom said nodding.
"Do you need an explanation?" Greg said gingerly, hoping Grissom would let it
drop.
"I need something Greg. I understand you went through something, but that
doesn't mean you can disappear without a trace." Grissom said with determination.
"For some reason I wish Catherine had found me…" Greg said with a smile. He
presumed she wouldn't ask for an explanation. Of course, Grissom would.
"I was eleven." Greg started, slightly choked. He inhaled deeply, and
continued. "Young enough to be naive, old enough to know better. I was out
shopping with my mom, in a supermarket, this guy just comes along, picks me up,
covers my face with a cloth – with chloroform – and the last thing I hear is my
mom screaming my name." Greg said, slightly choked, staring off into the
distance.
"That was the first day of the rest of my life," he said darkly, "after that, I
felt I knew how the world worked," he said, cringing slightly.
"You don't have to…" Grissom was slightly shocked at how easily Greg was divulging
this information.
From what Melanie said, he hadn't told anyone before.
He didn't want to open old wounds.
But Greg just talked over him.
"He took me up to Oregon; he took me everywhere," he said, looking at Grissom
for emphasis.
"We went to museums, lakes, forests, amusement arcades, malls…." He trailed of,
"everywhere a kid like me would want to go. It was like the best holiday I ever
went on…..which is sick," he said harshly, in self-disgust.
"Greg, the only reason he took you to those places was to justify what he was
doing to you." Grissom said insistently.
Greg carried on, either not hearing what grissom said, or not paying any
attention to it.
"On the seventh day, on the seventh day, I knew I had to escape……"
"Why?" Grissom enquired, breaking the silence, immediately regretting his words
after he spoke them.
"…….it doesn't take a genius to work out the presence of shovel, plastic, and
hydrochloric acid mean that you probably wont be around for much longer…." Greg
said quickly and angrily, staring at Grissom.
"He took me into the town, and I…. I managed to get away…. I just ran. It made
me sick, for all that time I was with him, the only thing probably stopping me
from leaving was my own fear," he spat in disgust.
"You were lucky Greg," Grissom hissed, he didn't like the thought of Greg
hating himself – for something that was beyond his own control.
"Yeah," he started sadly. "You learn to forget though, you learn to forget 7
days of your life. But every time I see another 11 year-old boy – I think…."
"You think he might be back," Grissom said knowledgably. It was natural for a
person to assume if their demons weren't locked away – they'd be back one day.
And Melanie did say that they never caught the guy.
Greg nodded in agreement. "Yeah – so I check, I check every place we went –
just to make sure." Greg said sadly. He was relieved that Grissom understood,
he was expecting to be reprimanded in some form.
"I feel…. I feel so guilty – I think – I got away – why cant they? – it's hard
to explain." Greg said, his voice a crescendo of frustration.
"But I enjoyed that week so much Grissom, well, the daylight hours, I feel like
I'm betraying anyone who goes missing……"
"Greg," Grissom said, still searching for the words, " You don't have to be
ashamed of how you feel. You did what you had to, to survive. Just because he
was 'nice' to you, doesn't mean he had any right to do what he did to you."
Grissom heard his voice waver slightly.
Grissom felt anger inside of him.
He felt angry that someone had abused Greg.
He calmed himself.
"When a child goes missing, it's not your fault. You do not initiate it." His
tone was informative, but instructional.
"I guess you're right Griss," Greg said, and the look of confusion on his face
was washed away by a week smile.
"Of course I am," Grissom said in jest.
"What do I do now?" Greg said, wincing at the thought that Grissom may force
him to sign forms, do penance, or see a psychiatrist.
"You go down to trace, and finish the cases you were working on." He said, with
no tone or facial expression.
"Thank you Grissom" Greg said sincerely. "Thank you for listening," he smiled.
With that, Greg turned, and started walking to the exit, which lead to the lab.
Grissom carried on looking at the landscape for a moment, before proceeding to
the roofs exit.
------
"You're results are in." Grissom stated, coming into the break room, and taking
a doughnut from the box.
"Who's?" Catherine questioned not looking up from her 'cosmopolitan' magazine.
"Yeah Griss, mine and Sara's or Nick and Cat's? Warrick enquired standing up.
"Both." Grissom said simply, taking a bite from his doughnut, and walking out
of the room. Everyone stared at each other, slightly perplexed, and decided to
follow.
Grissom was standing by the door of trace.
Then each member of the team saw something through the glass.
Someone.
Greg.
They all ran in, apart from Sara.
"Wow, Greg, we missed you!" Warrick yelled hugging him. Subsequently, both Nick
and Cath followed suit, all exclaiming how happy they were he was back,
bombarding him with questions.
But Grissom stood quietly, with a small smile on his face, watching the scene,
and next to him, stood Sara.
"You found him didn't you!" She exclaimed with a grin.
"He found himself," Grissom added cryptically, with a smile.
Sara stood staring at him for a moment, trying to work out what he meant, but
decided she had better things to do. She walked into trace, and gave Greg a
breath-taking hug.
He was back.
Greg was back.
-----
Hope you enjoyed the story.
