13- "Muy Loca"
"Gil!" Sara shrieked, jumping out of bed in horror, "What are you doing?"
He snorted as he awoke, and said, "Huh?"
"Gil, please, tell me we didn't... that we didn't..."
Gil smiled, "No, Sara, c'mon. You were drunk; there is no way I would do that to you. Give me some credit."
"You swear?"
"Sara, you're still wearing your clothes."
She looked down and blushed horribly. She hadn't noticed that.
He groggily lifted himself out of her bed and rubbed his eyes. He knew Sara didn't remember what she had said the night before, she being someone who rarely drinks to extremes, but that didn't stop him from remembering.
"Sara, I need to know." He said suddenly.
"Need to know what?"
"Sara, it's been five months since you left. We've been hanging out as friends for months, and it is wonderful, but I have got to know: is there any hope? That day, the day you left, the day of the interview, I meant everything I said. My life is nothing but regret, but I would do it again if I knew I would be able to be with you, if just for the brief period we were."
She began to speak, but Gil interrupted, "Please, Sara. I need the truth. It is neither one of our faults that we parted, and I truly called you to Las Vegas during the Holly Gribbs case because you are a wonderful CSI. You hurt all of us when you left, but it hurts me most because I know you left because of me, and not because of the job."
Sara looked at Gil, the only man who could rip her in two, but also the only man who could make her feel totally safe, content... so loved. It wasn't Gil to just pour his heart out like that, and he looked tired, like the thought of actually letting all his feelings out wore him down.
That was when she walked towards him, and finally kissed him.
It took one whole week after graduation for Greg to finally summon the courage to go over to Taña's house and apologize. The bet he and John had made was terrible, and went horribly awry.
He knocked on the Szmerka's door, and her parent's opened the door and fixed Greg with the scariest stare ever. They looked sick... like the thought of Greg revolted them. Like he was some kind of monster.
"Is Taña here? I need to apologize."
"No, she isn't. She left for college, and no thanks to you. Leave our household immediately." Mr. Szmerka ordered, and the normally jolly, happy Mrs. Szmerka said, "Oh Greg, how could you? She loved you, we all did. Why did you do this?"
The door was slammed in his face.
Greg and Taña knocked on the Livingston's door, and still no one answered.
"Do you think she skipped town? She's running, I'm sure of it."
Greg rolled his eyes, "You are such a pessimist."
"I'm not a pessimist, I just focus on the logic in each and every situation, and the logic always tends to be pessimistic."
"You know, the more I hang out with you, the more frightened I become of the FBI."
"What makes you think the FBI made me this way?"
"Look, Taña, I told you I was sorry about-"
"Drop it Greg. That was ten years ago-"
"You guys looking for the Livingstons?"
Greg and Taña whipped around to see a pleasant looking man walking two dogs.
"Yes, can you tell us where they are?"
"Viv and Jeremy went to Lake Powell for the week. Left yesterday. You with the editing company? You know, Jack died awhile ago-"
"No, we aren't." Taña said, smiling, "But thank you for telling us." Right then, her cell phone rang and she answered it with: "Szmerka."
She paused, and laughed, and Greg stood there, looking back at the house in a bored way and the man walking the dogs left. Then, Taña burst into a round of Spanish chatter into the phone, shocking Greg.
"Eres no seriosa... ¿Verdad? Oh, por favor, yo te conozco y tú nunca- ¿Qué? Yo te dije! Sí, yo hice." She paused again as the person on the other end was talking, and looked at Greg, who was gaping at her, and she said suddenly, "Necesito ir. Sí. Yo halbaré con tí luego. Adíos."
She hung up the phone and said, "So, who wants to go to Lake Powell?"
Greg was thunderstruck, "You can speak Spanish?"
Taña smiled and walked towards the car, "I dunno what you're talking about. Let's go."
Greg smiled and shook his head. This girl was muy loca. He passed their trash, and continued walking but paused and walked back and stared at it in a curious manner.
Taña was in the car, staring at him, talking to herself. "What the heck is that guy doing?" She opened her door and walked over to him.
"Greg, what the heck are you doing?"
He remained silent, apparently very deep in thought.
She went over to him and knocked on his head, "Uh, thinking deep thoughts or thinking no thoughts?"
"Where is the mold?"
Taña stared at him,"Huh?"
"The mold of Jack's wound. His head wound."
Taña paused, "I suppose it's with evidence back at the lab. Why?"
Greg pointed at the trash. The Livingston's were throwing out all of Jack's old stuff, and in the trash was a Bowflex machine. Greg pointed to one of the bars sticking out of it. It matched the mold perfectly.
Greg opened up his case and pulled out some luminal and sprayed every single one of the bars that stuck out, and the very last one turned a bright blue. A very bright blue.
"Holy crap." They both stated in unison, and it was the first time they didn't get mad at each other. They stood there in a stunned silence after Greg swabbed it, and finally Taña said, "How long of a drive is it to Lake Powell?"
Greg smiled, "Depends on whose driving."
So, a day later, Greg and Taña were driving to Lake Powell, a 267 mile trip estimating. They had heard through mutual friends of the Livingston's that they leave off from Wahweap Marina, in Arizona, on their yacht, but the trip there was still four and a half hours in a cramped space, two enemies and no good radio stations.
They had called ahead and told the Arizona police that they now had a warrant on suspicion of murder on Vivica and Jeremy Livingston, but not to pursue until they arrived. Grissom was accompanying them on the trip but was driving his own car ahead of them, and Greg was driving his car, and Taña was in the passenger seat, staring out the window.
"You know, we do need a profiler. We would have never suspected the son and wife angle."
"We still don't know that's true or not."
"Still, we closed the case, and it would have stayed closed if-"
"Greg? Shut up."
"Okay."
They drove in more silence as Taña silently wished to herself they had flown, but it was cheaper driving. About two hours into the trip she finally fell asleep.
Greg drove on as the sun slowly set and Taña snoozed in the front seat, twisted in an odd angle in a failed attempt to become more comfortable. Her face was contorted in her dream, a pained look on her face. Greg saw her twitching and grunting and started to ponder waking her up when she did so herself, jerking awake suddenly.
"Good morning, sunshine." Greg said, as she rubbed her eyes and groaned.
"Have any good dreams?"
"You were in it."
Greg looked out into the road with a thoughtful glance and Taña said, "Not in a good way. It's just... you wear the same cologne that you wore back in High School."
"So?"
"So, memories are connected to scent. Bad memories."
Just then, Greg's cell rang.
"Greg? The police are at the marina now, and we got about five more minutes until we reach there. Are you ready?"
"Ready for anything. Perhaps a good swim."
"See you in a few, Greg." Grissom hung up. They arrived at the marina and Greg and Grissom grabbed their evidence collection boxes as they all strapped on their guns and walked over to the lobby. There was one cop.
Grissom walked up, "What is this? Where is our search party?"
The cop looked up at Grissom in a bored way, "It's dark. We don't search when it gets dark. There is no point. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going home now that you guys finally got here. We meet here at six o'clock." He paid for his drink and walked out without another word, leaving Grissom silently swearing to himself.
"What-"
"0100 hours." Taña answered, reading his mind again, and Grissom said, "We sleep in the cars tonight."
"What?!" both Taña and Greg said as he walked out, but the door shut behind him.
"I am not sleeping with you." Taña said, and stomped out, leaving just Greg in the lobby, and the receptionist gave him a sidelong look, and he smiled at her and shrugged, then hurried out into the darkness.
Through Taña's mad arguing skills, Greg and Grissom wound up in Grissom's Explorer, and Taña was sleeping in Greg's sedan. They had bought a camping spot so as not to get a ticket for loitering, and two hours into the night neither Greg nor Grissom had gotten any sleep at all.
"How did you meet Taña?" Grissom asked, more desperate for conversation because of the boredom. Greg smiled.
"I met her in the third grade. Actually, the first time I met her was when I picked a fight with her in the recess lot. She threw one punch and I was out like a light bulb."
Grissom looked thoughtful, "Yeah, I can believe that."
"So- okay, not funny- it turns out that she had just moved to San Gabriel that summer and she and I shared the exact same birthday, so, at school, we both invited everyone to our parties, both of which were on the same day. So, I got angry with her for sharing the same birthday, and I challenged her to a fight outside during recess, to see who would get the class to attend. The rest is history... or... really... the rest I can't remember because of brain damage."
"What ended up happening?"
"Our mothers made us share a birthday party, black eye and all. We kind of became friends after that, but went our separate ways in high school."
"So, you two, mature grown up investigators constantly argue about a birthday party? That is so incredibly sad and pathetic."
Greg blushed, even though Grissom couldn't see him. "Well, that's not the real reason. You see, in our senior year I, uh, well... accepted a dare to see if I could go out with her and get her to say she loved me before graduation."
"Wow, Greg, a new low."
"I know, and I actually did start to fall for her... but then graduation came and my friend told her about the dare and she thought I was lying the entire time, even though I wasn't. She went off to college and I never saw her again. I never had a chance to explain."
"But why did you choose her? She's very attractive, she's nice. Where's the humor in this?"
Greg blushed harder. "We called her the walrus... because... oh this is so terrible... she was fat, and had the worst buckteeth I had ever seen."
"Wow."
"But... I really fell for her. Hard. I was able to look past all that."
"Have you told her?"
"Yeah, about eight months later I got a phone number and called her and told her everything, but she hated me so much it didn't matter. I was stupid; I know that, even back then. That was ten years ago. I never thought I would see her again."
"Well, at least you two arguing makes sense now, but stop it. It's really annoying and unprofessional."
Greg rolled his eyes and awoke the next morning, cramped and really warm because the car insulated the body heat from two uncomfortable scientists, to Taña tapping on the window wearing a wetsuit. It was still dark.
"Ready to go searching?" She yelled through the window, and winked at him.
"A disturbing new study finds that studies are disturbing."
-Ellen Degeneres
