Title: Alive Again
Summary: Sara and Warrick become closer after he saves her life.
A/N: Some of you might be pleased to note that this is a much happier chapter than some of my previous ones! As you all can see I am updating this story very quickly. The reason being is because I want to start on my next one! Hehehehe. No worries though...we still have a few chapters left together. Its been a great ride so far. As always please R/R!
Spoilers: Possibly anything all the way up to Early Rollout.
Rating: PG13 for language and some adult situations.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. If I did I wouldn't be living in this shoddy little apartment dreaming about winning the lottery. :)
Chapter Seventeen:
One week later...
Warrick sat in the interrogation room gazing calmly into the furious faces of CSI Chaswick and CSI Levins. They had already spent the past thirty minutes grilling him, trying their best to get him to incriminate himself.
He was steel. They threatened him. He knew they had nothing. They made false accusations. He smiled. They claimed to have enough evidence to toss him away for fifty years. He shrugged and asked them to present it. They gave up.
"Ok Brown, we are going to level with you. This investigation is going nowhere. Cory Parks claims that Thomas Mortesen attacked him and he acted in self defense. Ten other inmates who saw the fight are backing his story," Chaswick said slowly.
"I told you guys that you wouldn't find anything," Warrick responded dryly.
"Brown I know for a fact that you are guilty as hell. Count yourself lucky, your friend wouldn't even give you up for a reduced sentence," Levins snarled.
Warrick raised his eyebrows. "You might want to watch that temper Levins. Are we through here? I have a job to do."
"Yeah."
Warrick shook each man's hand before walking out of the room. He should have felt relieved. Instead he just felt empty.
After confessing his guilt to Sara a week ago she asked to be taken back to her apartment. He had tried to protest stating that she was in no shape to take care of herself just yet. That comment had started another fight and finally Warrick relented to her wishes. He took Sara and Felix back to her apartment that day. He helped her get her things into her place and told her to call him if he needed anything. Before he left Sara told him that she would never tell anyone what he had done. He had laughed sadly and told her that it wasn't her silence he was after.
They hadn't spoken in a week.
Warrick knew that he might have lost her, but he couldn't regret what he had done. He knew that one day Sara's scars would fade, she would be able to move on without ever having to worry about Mortesen lurking in the shadows waiting for her. As much as he loved her he couldn't apologize for this. He wouldn't feel guilty about it either.
When he walked into the break room the other CSIs were waiting for him. He plastered a convincing smile on his face for their benefit. They all stared at him expectantly.
"Hey I told you guys nothing would come of it," he joked.
Several sighs of relief were expelled throughout the room.
"I think this calls for a celebration! Who is up for a fresh cup of coffee?" Greg quipped.
"We all need to get a life if a cup of coffee is what makes our day," Catherine dead panned.
Nick patted Warrick on the back and drew him into a hug. "Man I was worried there for about two seconds. I bet Sara will be relieved huh?"
"Speaking of Sara, she wants to come back to work. Has she talked to you about this Warrick?" Grissom inquired.
"Uh no she hasn't."
"She called me earlier this evening and asked if she could come back. With that cast on her leg she isn't going to be visiting any crime scenes for quite awhile, but she could help out with paperwork and assist in the lab. I am worried that she might be coming back a bit too quickly. It hasn't been very long since she was released from the hospital."
Warrick smiled lamely. "You know Sara. She hates sitting around."
"How is she doing around your place? Is she holding up alright?" Catherine inquired.
Warrick exhaled a deep breath. He had managed to avoid this topic for a whole week. "She asked me to take her back to her apartment last week."
Almost in perfect unison everyone in the room shouted, "What?!"
"Warrick what were you thinking? She still isn't completely recovered!" Nick chastised.
"Warrick this wasn't the best time to let her go off on her own. I thought you understood she would need help," Grissom admonished.
"Warrick you didn't break up with her did you?!" Catherine exclaimed..
"If Warrick isn't seeing her does that mean I might have a chance?" Greg asked earnestly.
"NO!" Grissom, Catherine and Nick shouted.
Warrick sat slack jawed. He couldn't believe they were all ganging up on him. He held up his hands and said, "Whoa! Calm down. I tried to talk her out of it. She wouldn't listen. It was either take her back to her apartment or watch her try to walk there with crutches."
"Did you two break up?" Greg asked hopefully.
Warrick gave Greg a dangerous look and the lab tech smiled wanly before scampering out of the break room. "Listen guys can we just get to work? I don't really want to talk about this anymore."
Grissom nodded with understanding. "Catherine and Nick you two have a double homicide at UWLV. Warrick you are with me. Lets get moving."
Warrick followed Grissom to his car. "What kind of case have we got?" he asked as he hopped in the driver's seat and turned the ignition.
"A floater."
"Damn. Too bad Sara isn't here you usually give those to her."
Grissom chuckled. "Sara has a strong stomach for the gross ones."
"Oh yeah. Remember that floater in the bathtub she and Catherine worked on? Oh man that was disgusting."
"Catherine made me take her out to dinner for assigning her to that case," Grissom quipped.
Warrick laughed. "Catherine sure knows how to play her cards."
"She is an impressive woman," Grissom noted.
"That she is," Warrick agreed. "Sara is the polar opposite of her."
Grissom looked over at the younger CSI. "You say that like your not sure its a good thing."
Warrick sighed. "Catherine is much easier to talk to. She doesn't blow up at everything I say. She is calmer I guess."
Grissom snorted. "I don't think you have your head on straight Warrick. Catherine herself has admitted to me that on her best days she intrusive and abrasive. Sara can be rather defensive, but that is just her manner. I don't know what happened between you two, but I think you need to give her time to work things out on her own. Sara has a need to prove she can do things on her own," he qualified.
"Looks like we are here Griss. Lets check it out."
The floater turned out to be a fifteen year old boy who drowned in his family's swimming pool. His parents were thoroughly distraught, but did their best to answer the questions posed by the CSIs. They claimed that their son often went swimming at night and that they didn't have any idea what had happened until one of them went outside to tell their son to come in for the night. They both insisted that their son was a strong swimmer.
The two CSIs were joined by David who groaned when he saw the boy in the water.
Grissom and Warrick took their time investigating the crime scene. Grissom and David were examining the body while Warrick searched for other evidence. Using an ALS he carefully maneuvered around the scene searching for clues. Finding nothing he went to join his supervisor and the coroner.
"Did you find any trace evidence Warrick?"
"Naw. This place is clean."
"Well there is one place you haven't looked," Grissom drawled out.
Warrick looked at the pool and sighed with resignation. "I don't suppose you would play rock-paper-scissors with me for it?"
Grissom smiled. "Not a chance."
"Too bad, it worked with Nick." Warrick removed any electronics he was carrying and his shoes before diving into the pool. At the bottom he found several golf balls. After several dives he was able to collect them all. By the time Warrick climbed out of the pool Grissom was waiting for him with a towel he pulled out of the car.
Warrick held up the bag of golf balls for his boss to see. "Looks like someone might have been working on their driving game?"
"If you ask me I'd say its a water hazard," Grissom replied.
*****
Grissom drove back to the lab with Warrick in the passenger seat.
"Warrick I think I am going to allow Sara to come back to the lab part time. Maybe a couple hours tomorrow night to see how she does and we will go from there. We can all take turns picking her up for work and driving her home in the meantime."
"I am sure she will appreciate that," Warrick commented.
"Warrick don't let a rift come in between the two of you. Once that happens it becomes more and more impossible to repair the damage that has been done. It might seem easier to do nothing at all until you realize you are left with nothing at all," Grissom confessed.
"Grissom she left me. Not the other way around."
"Did she have a good reason to leave you?"
"Yeah. She had plenty of reason," Warrick admitted.
Grissom drove silently for awhile before speaking again. "I would suggest fixing it before its...too late."
Warrick spend the rest of the drive back back to the lab thinking about what Grissom had said. He had told Sara that he loved her and she hadn't responded at all. He hadn't really expected her to say anything as he had also just confessed that he had a man killed for her. He decided he would try and reestablish her trust in him.
When they reached the lab Warrick delivered his evidence to one of the lab techs and started on some paperwork that he needed to finish. At the end of shift he stopped by Grissom's office before leaving. When he walked in the room he shut the door behind him. Grissom looked up and cocked his head. He knew a serious discussion was about to happen.
"Griss if you have a moment I need to tell you something."
"Of course. Please take a seat."
"I've been doing some thinking recently. And well I feel like I need you to know something."
Grissom raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Since I have been a part of this lab you have watched out for me. You could have fired me easily after what happened to Holly Gribbs, but you didn't."
"You are a good CSI Warrick. You learned a harsh lesson when that happened," Grissom responded.
"Yeah well you have helped me out a lot since then too. And I've tried not to let you down."
"Warrick where is this going?" Grissom said as he narrowed his eyes.
"I know you feel the same way about Sara as I do. Hell I figure right now if you wanted to you could show up at her apartment and sweep her off of her feet. She isn't even speaking to me right now," he confessed.
Grissom leaned forward on his desk. "First of all Warrick I wouldn't do that. To you or her. Secondly if you are having problems you need to take my earlier advice and fix them. Don't sit around here talking about it."
Warrick smiled slightly. "Griss what I am trying to say here is that I have never known my father. And outside of the strangeness of us both loving the same girl, I'd like you to know that you are the closest thing I have ever had to one. A father that is."
Warrick got up and left the office leaving a speechless Grissom in his wake.
*****
Warrick drove back to his apartment determined to try and win Sara back. He planned to take a quick shower and then drive to her apartment. He would then camp outside of her doorway until she talked to him. Warrick decided that while Thomas Mortesen had come between them in life, he would allow him to continue to haunt them in death.
He bounded up his steps two at a time and was in such a hurry that he never saw her standing behind him.
"Will you invite me in?" she said as he unlocked the door.
"Sara!" he exclaimed as he whirled around.
She smiled as she leaned on her crutches. "Hi Warrick."
"Sara what are you doing here? How did you get here?" he said as he opened the door for her to go through.
"Well for the first question, I needed to talk to you. For the second, I took a cab."
He chuckled. "You could have called me to pick you up."
"Yeah I could have but that would have been easy and you should know me well enough by now to know that I don't do anything easy."
"Ain't that the truth. Can I get you anything?
"Sure some coffee if you don't mind," she replied as she sat down on his couch.
"Yeah no problem." He quickly got the coffee maker brewing before sitting down next to her. He didn't want to push her but he wasn't about to sit across the room.
Sara stared at him and chewed on her lower lip. "I have been thinking about you. About us. I think you did what you did out of love," she raised her hand when she he tried to interrupt her. "No please let me finish. When you told me last week that you loved me I was so angry with you. I wasn't sure I could believe you, but...but then I realized something. He haunts your dreams too doesn't he?" she asked referring to Mortesen.
Warrick nodded. "I dream that you need me and I can't get to you. In those dreams he wins every time."
"Warrick I don't want the reason we didn't work out to be because of this. I want to try again. If you want to that is," she spoke hesitantly.
"Sara you already know how I feel," he said earnestly taking her hand in his and kissing the palm.
She responded by pulling him in close for a kiss. Their first since her attack.
To be continued...
