Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were shocked by the turn of events in the last chapter. My biggest fear with this story was that the revelation would be one of those "I knew it all along, who did she think she was kidding?" kind of moments. But it seems I underestimated myself a bit. So to those of you who had if figured out, rock on. And to those of you that didn't, hope you liked it! Keep the reviews coming and I will try and crank out a new chapter a little more quickly than I did this one! (and special thanks to certain people who hounded me via email to get this chapter out! I promised and I made good on it, just for you!)
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I was just relishing the thought of a weekend without work when I ran into Sara in the parking lot. I wish I knew why I asked her to come with me that night. Maybe I was feeling more brazen then usual. Maybe my anticipation for the weekend got the better of me. Whatever the reason, I asked. I was hoping she'd accept but expected her to decline. You can imagine my surprise when she said yes. There was something different in her eyes that night. There were ghosts or demons, or something that she needed to try and escape. I guess that I was the logical choice to help her do that. I mean, I had the keys in my hand and a full tank of gas. Anyways, we jumped in my car and took off like two rebels without a cause. I don't know what we were thinking. Well, I know what I was thinking. I was thinking, there is a beautiful girl in the seat next to me, and she is here because she wants to be. I knew that there was nothing more than friendship between us, but hey, when you've got it, flaunt it. So I took her to this bar where no one knew our names and I could feel like The Man because I had a girl like that with me.
"Is there a point anywhere in this story?"
Greg glared at Brass. "Hey, who's telling the story here? I'm getting to the point, just hold on. Patience is a virtue you know." Greg screwed up his face as he tried to recall where he was in his story.
Right, so we went to The Broken Barstool, which as I am sure you are now well aware, is a total dive. But that night it was just what we needed. The drinks were cheap and the crowd was wild. It was the kind of place where you could throw your inhibitions to the wind. It was loud and obnoxious and just cool. We both started drinking the minute we walked through the door. Neither one of us was thinking about how we were going to get home later that night. We were just having a great time.
I remember that at one point she turned to me and yelled "I can't believe we didn't so this sooner!". She was pretty drunk by then but so was I for that matter. I wouldn't let her pay for a thing. I bought her drinks all night, but hey when they are watered down and dirt cheap it's not that bad. God, he must have served me about a dozen times that night. Between my drinks and hers, I was probably a pretty familiar face at the bar.
"He recognized your pictured but not hers" murmured Catherine. Greg nodded.
I'm not surprised. She was never anywhere near the bar. She was either on the dance floor or at our table. Anyways, I guess after the first couple of rounds she was getting a little more daring because she dared me to go shot for shot with her. Man, that girl can knock them back! I was hanging in there pretty well, but she must have had some pain to kill because she was firing them back as fast as she could. I think that's when I said something along the lines of:
Whoa! Easy tiger, we have all night!"
She just laughed and kept on drinking. By the time we were ready to go, both of us were just trashed. We could barely see straight, let alone drive a car. But as we all know, alcohol can do funny things to you. I was going to call a cab but she grabbed the car keys from my coat and took off with them. I followed her out to the car and tried to tell her that she was in no shape to drive. She laughed and asked me where my sense of adventure was. I tried to reason with her but she climbed in the car and turned it on. That gave me two choices, neither of which was particularly desirable: I could let her take off and hope that she'd be ok, or I could get in the car with her. I think we all know what I chose. I don't remember too much about the ride itself, except that she was driving awful fast. I was asking her to slow down. One of the last things I remember saying to her was, "Take it easy kid, you're going to get us killed". It couldn't have been more then thirty seconds later that she lost control the car. She hit the brakes but it was too late. I think we went off the road into a ditch at that point. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the tree rushing at us.
I don't know how long I was out. I know that when I woke up, my head hurt like hell. I had been wearing my seatbelt, but there was no passenger side airbag. I must have smashed my forehead into the dashboard. I tried to wake Sara up, but she was so still. I was so scared. Combine fear with having too much to drink and it's safe to say that maybe I made a stupid move at that point.
"You switched seats with her." Warrick spoke this time. Greg nodded and rubbed the uninjured spot on his forehead.
"Why?" asked Catherine cautiously.
"Because I had nothing to lose and she had everything to gain. Sara is a damn good CSI and if it got out that she was driving while impaired, it would destroy her reputation. Everything that she has ever worked for, everything that she has ever sacrificed would be erased by one stupid decision. I couldn't let that happen to her. I'm just the lowly lab tech. Who's going to be remotely surprised that I did something like that? Besides, there was not much at stake for me. I can always find another job. Sara can't. This job is her life. I couldn't let her lose it."
"She could have lost her life anyways" pointed out Brass. Greg nodded and looked down at his hands.
"I wish that I could say I did the smart thing. For a minute I thought I had. I really thought that no one would ever figure out that Sara was behind the wheel of the car. At the time, it seemed like a really good idea that I switched seats with her. As the alcohol wore off, it became clear that there were some very serious repercussions to those actions. It honestly never occurred to be that charges might be brought against me."
Catherine decided to try and get Greg back on track. "So do you want to explain this to us? Tell us how you fooled everyone?"
"It wasn't so hard. Not really, not when you think about it. In fact in hindsight, all of the clues were there….
When I realized that Sara wasn't going to wake up, I knew I didn't have a lot of time. Someone would be calling 911 soon. I unbuckled myself and then unbuckled her seatbelt. I managed to pull her over towards me, but I must have rubbed my hand against my head, and then brushed it across the dashboard. I guess no one really thought about trying to figure out how my blood got on the passenger side of the car. At any rate, I switched seats with Sara. It didn't occur to me until later that it would be awfully suspicious that I was on the driver's side with an airbag, yet still sustained a head injury. I kept waiting for someone to bust me on that one, but people seemed very willing to accept that I was the one who caused the accident. And don't look so guilty Catherine, I didn't mean it like that. I am making an observation here. You're not the only one who likes to do that you know. Anyways, since no one called me on the head injury, I figured I was home free. The ambulance found me in the driver's seat and the rest is, as they say, history. Until last night. Warrick was helping me change my shirt, since my chest injury makes that particular chore a bit of a challenge. If my mind had been in the right place, I would have known right away that he would piece everything together. The bruises on my chest are what gave me away, aren't they? I knew it. The bruising on my chest runs from my right shoulder down to my left hip. Which of course if the same way a passenger-side seatbelt runs. If I had been driving, the bruises would have been flipped. That stupid seatbelt, which saved my life, also turned out to be my downfall. Not only did it clue Warrick in to my secret, but it raised questions that I am sure would have eventually ratted me out anyways. You guys must have wondered how Sara sustained such minimal injury when she wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Like a fool, I forgot to put it back on her after I made the switch. I thought I was so clever. Instead I was just buying some time until the truth came out. In the end, I guess I still come out the loser, huh?
Warrick shook his head vehemently. "No way. Yeah, you made a stupid move but don't for a minute think you are a loser. You made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save a friend. Maybe the method was a little unorthodox but your heart was in the right place."
"That's right" agreed Catherine. "I think that Sara is lucky to have someone who cares about her that much."
Greg smiled wanly. "But look at the mess I made. I caused so much grief and wasted so much time. How is anyone ever going to be able to really trust me again?"
The room was quiet for a moment. Then Catherine spoke again.
"I think it will take some time to get people to trust you. But I also think that when they hear the whole story, they will be willing to overlook a lot of the negative aspects and truly see the genuine concern that was your motivation."
Greg smiled the first real smile since the accident. "Thanks Catherine. But all of this exposition still begs the question: when do I tell Grissom?"
Catherine's cell phone rang before she could answer. She answered and her face also broke into a wide grin.
"Speak of the devil. Sara's waking up. I'd say that there's no time like the present to clean the skeletons out of your closet".