Arguing. (4/?)

A.N. Thank you for all the reviews so far, they've been very helpful in motivating me to write more. There will be more soon, I promise!

This was it, this was the moment of truth. Warrick found himself holding his breath as he stared at the final piece of the circuit. His finger on the switch, he stared around the room. It was two in the morning, the only light in the room a torch he held in his other hand and the streetlights outside. Finally, after seven long weeks, this was the make or break time to get the electricity working in the house. Warrick had had to rewire everything. The original wiring was more than just a health hazard it was so old. It had taken him a full week, but finally it came down to this one switch. He focused in on where he knew the central light bulb for the kitchen was, which he could see through the open door. He was standing at the electricity panel under the stairs, where he had been most of the night doing the final run through of the wiring.

He paused only once, to listen to the silence, to reflect that he shouldn't be doing this alone. For the seventh night in a row, Sara was at work. Their two weeks of annual leave together to make a dent in all the work at the house had started off with Sara working all hours on some case that had come up. One phone call from Grissom, and he hadn't seen more than a few minutes of her since.

Of course he'd put the time to good use. When he had got too frustrated with the wiring he had managed to finish all the masonry work needed downstairs which meant every room had four walls and a ceiling. All the windows were now properly secured in place, cleaned so that light was no longer filtered through endless levels of dust. Three of the rooms even had proper floors down now instead of plasterboard masquerading as wooden flooring.

But all his achievements felt hollow. This was meant to be a joint project, their home. Sara, when she had deigned to come home, had commented enthusiastically about all the changes before rushing out once more. The site of her leaving was becoming more frustrating than wiring a junction point for fifty separate sites.

She had phoned that evening to say she'd be home and would bring dinner with her. He'd set up a small table he'd had since he left home, cleaned enough of the dust to make the small dining room off the kitchen usable, blunting the effect with candles all around.

The candles had melted long ago, plunging the room in darkness. The dust had seemed to settle in the last few hours again as Warrick had sat on one of the large cushions he'd put down for them to use and waited. That had been seven hours ago.

He'd finally had to do something, had fiddled with the wiring more, finding the complexity challenging then, putting his mind to better use than wondering if it was always going to be like this. Could he marry a woman who was clearly already married to her job? He'd known what Sara was like before, of course he had. He loved the job, was always willing to work the longer hours to see a perp put to justice. But there was a line between work and life that he had drawn long ago, that Sara didn't mind crossing whenever and wherever. He thought it would be different if they were living together. He couldn't believe how wrong he had been.

He finally reigned his thoughts back in and without anymore pre-emptive hit the switch, feeling the irony as the lights came on the house that had been in the dark ages for the last goodness knows how many years.

'Congratulations to me.' He muttered with little feeling as he stepped out of the cupboard, closing the door firmly, staring at the house bathed in artificial light. It looked in a worse state if that was possible than it did in the grimy light of day. He chuckled mirthlessly. Congratulations indeed.

The front door banged open, and Sara, hair swept back in a lopsided ponytail, day old clothes on swept in, looking at the lights in surprise.

'Wow!' she said, grinning at him across the room. 'Great, we have 'leccy at last.'

'Yeah.' Warrick said, stooping to pack up the tools he'd been using into their case.

'Sorry about dinner.' Sara's muffled voice followed her through as she kicked off her shoes and crossed to the stairs, going to dump her bags. 'Had something to finish up.'

'Oh.' Was all Warrick had to say. He could think of a lot more he wanted to say, but held his tongue, determined not to get into another argument.

'Still, looks like you've been busy yourself.' She carried on as she came back down the stairs.

'You could have called.' Warrick said mildly, stacking the box of tools in the corner of the empty lounge.

'I was busy. Still, I didn't think you'd mind, you know how it is.' She told him, crossing through into the kitchen. Warrick followed, watching as she poured herself a glass of water from a bottle stood on side next to the sink.

'Well I did mind.' Warrick said before he could stop himself.

Sara looked up, surprised by the tone.

'I was expecting you home seven hours ago.' Warrick said, the tone of his voice darkening as he spoke.

Sara's eyes narrowed slightly at his tone. 'I was busy.' She told him, unapologetically.

'You could have called and told me.' Warrick told her.

'What do you want from me?' Sara challenged.

At the tone, Warrick lost any control of his temper. 'I want you to care! I want you to care as much about our relationship as you do about your job'

Sara looked even more shocked at the sudden change of direction the conversation had taken. 'I do care.' She told him.

'Well you have a funny way of showing it! You work overtime on overtime, you're never home, you cancel anything if Grissom calls.'

'Is that what this is about, Grissom?' Sara asked, her own temper rising at the accusations.

'No. It's about us. About our so-called relationship.'

'What do you want me to say?' Sara asked.

'I don't want you to say anything'

'I love you Warrick' She tried.

Warrick wasn't having it though. He'd had enough. 'Do you? Do you really? Because at the moment I'm having a little trouble believing it. I go to bed, and wake up alone. I see you more on shift than I do off. I have to arrange to meet you if I want to see you. I have to arrange anytime we seem to see each other. I'm tired of having to put in all the effort and to still be left in the dark, on my own. I'm tired of our relationship playing second fiddle to your career. It's not fair, and I don't know if I can do it anymore.'

'You knew who I was before you got into this relationship. You knew how dedicated I was to my job before any of this happened'

'So I'm not as important?'

'I never said that.'

'Well that's what it sounded like. That I'm not worth to you what your career is.'

'You're putting words in my mouth.' She accused.

'Am I?' He asked.

'You knew who I was. You said you loved me. Was that a lie? Because if you loved me, you would love all of me.'

'That's not fair Sara. I love you. Why can't you see that that's why I want to see you occasionally?'

'You see me now.'

'Yeah at work. If we happen to be on the same case. Or if we happen to see each other in the halls. Oh and maybe, just maybe, if I'm lucky enough you'll rush past as the rest of us are going home.'

'What do you want from me Warrick?'

'I don't know. What am I worth to you?'

'How dare you! Just because maybe I get a little busy at work, it doesn't mean I stop thinking about you, or wanting to be with you.'

'That's not good enough, Sara.'

'What are you saying?'

'I'm saying…I'm saying that something has to change. Something has to give. And at the moment it's me. I can't carry on in this one-sided relationship.' Even as he was saying them, he couldn't believe the words were coming out of his mouth. But even if his brain wasn't engaged, his heart was.

'It's…over?' Sara finally asked.

'That's your decision to make'

'You want me to choose between you and being a CSI?'

'No. I want you to choose if you still want to be in this relationship, whether you can put as much energy and focus into is as you do a case. I want you to make the effort for a change.'

Sara didn't have an immediate come back to that. The argument had come out of left field for her, wasn't something she'd considered. Which was what was making Warrick even angrier, that she didn't get it, didn't understand where he was coming from. He tried again, the tone to his voice a little more reasonable.

'Why can't you commit to this, to us, like you commit to a case at work? Why is work so much easier than us? What are you so scared of?'

'Oh I don't know, that you'll leave me. Or cheat on me. Or any of the other hundred ways that I get hurt in this.' She accused.

'I'm not that guy, Sara; I thought you'd know that by now. If you can't trust me by now, then what kind of relationship is this?'

'You tell me, you're the one that seems to want to define it so badly.' She accused.

Warrick was about to retaliate, but instead took a breath. It was late, and neither of them were thinking straight. All he knew, at that moment, he didn't want to be in this house anymore. 'I think we both need some time to think. I'm gonna…go.'

'You're leaving?' She asked, panic suddenly flaring in her eyes.

Warrick caught the warning sign but he'd had enough. He just needed to get out. 'We need a break, Sare. I need a break.'

Without a backward glance he crossed the room, picking up only his wallet and keys before getting away from the house. Sara flinched as the front door slammed behind him.