A/N: Response to the elemental challenge on UtB. Elements were: An isolated dirt road, a demagnetized hotel key, a glass eye, the quote "I don't have any regrets. Doubts about what I've done, but no regrets." And a broken pager. It's not beta-d or anything, but review if you want and tell me what you think. Enjoy :)
Sara gritted her teeth as she roared the isolated dirt road. She'd managed to find this shortcut on her previous trip, and although it was slightly nerve-wracking driving it alone, she enjoyed it because she could go as fast as she wanted. BOOM! Nick's car burst out through a hedge. "Nick!" Sara shrieked indignantly, waving her PS2 controller around. "Get your own shortcut!"
Nick grinned boyishly at her, hands still gripping the controller. Sara narrowed her eyes and drove faster, fingers frantically pressing the controls as she tried to overtake Nick. Suddenly she couldn't see, and she heard Warrick chuckle as she clawed his hands away from her face, but it was too late – Nick had crossed the finish line. "Warrick! I was almost winning!" Sara complained.
Warrick just smirked and said, "Hey, I was just helping you out. Gris is about to give out assignments and he'd be slightly less than impressed with you and Nick trying to beat each other on PS2."
At the mention of Grissom's name, Sara's happiness dissipated. Warrick noticed her glum expression and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, saying, "Don't look so depressed, maybe we'll get a good one this time."
Sara looked up at him and grinned. "Yeah, well, anything would be better than chasing after a guy with a glass eye for a week only to discover that he has absolutely no relation to your case."
Warrick laughed and squeezed her shoulder. "See, that's the spirit." At that moment, Grissom walked in, and his expression soured immediately as he took in Warrick's arm around Sara's shoulder. Warrick slipped his arm off her shoulder to take the cup of coffee Nick offered him, and Sara almost missed it because Grissom had nearly looked like he wanted to remove Warrick's arm from her shoulder, and some part of her hoped it was because he was jealous. She'd like that. At least then he might pay more attention to her.
Nick cleared his throat. "So, what've we got?" Grissom waved the papers in his hand. "Nicky, you and Cath have a DB over at the Tangiers. Warrick and Sara, we've got a suspected triple-homicide downtown. Alright?" Everyone nodded, and set off in their respective directions. Sara, Warrick and Grissom headed out to the car park, where they got into Grissom's Tahoe and headed off to the crime scene.
When Sara clocked out, she was exhausted. She just wanted to go home and get into bed, but then she remembered her apartment was being fixed up from a leak in the roof and she had to go sleep in a lumpy, hard bed at the West Palm St. Hotel. Not only that, but she had to go to reception and pick up a new key because Greg had been bored and decided that it would be oh so amusing to demagnetize Sara's hotel key. Sara, of course, failed to see the funny side of it.
She was just heading out when she heard Grissom calling her. Her heart constricted, and she turned around, her face carefully expressionless. Her heart sank when she saw the furious expression on his face. She walked towards him, and the moment she stepped into his office he asked, his teeth gritted, "Why didn't you answer my pages?"
Sara blinked, and checked her pager. Must be broken, she figured. "It's broken," she told Grissom. "Why were you paging me?"
Grissom cleared his throat. "Where are you going now?" Sara stared at him, and she almost smiled at the thought of telling him she was going out with Warrick.
Grissom raised an eyebrow and asked what was amusing her, and she responded, "Oh, just thinking about something Warrick said." She immediately wanted to take them back when she saw Grissom's expression – he looked like she'd slapped him across the face. Then she told herself that she didn't care – it was what he deserved after the way he'd been treating her.
Grissom then got his professional face back on and said, "Yes, well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. If, um, you and Warrick want to be together, that's fine, but don't do it on my shift – this is a place for work, not romance."
Sara's jaw dropped. Suddenly she wanted to laugh. "Me and Warrick? What the hell, Gris, we aren't going out. We're just friends, you know that."
Grissom's jaw tightened and he replied, "Do I?"
Sara grinned. "Grissom, are you jealous?" His expression was priceless.
"Of course not! I just want you to know that this is a place for work, not play."
Sara's momentary happiness waned. Of course he wasn't jealous. That would be too human for him. "Grissom..."She said, her voice trailing off. What could she say? Nothing she ever said got through to him. When she had asked him out to dinner, almost a whole year ago, she saw the look on his face and wanted to take the words back, and his response couldn't have hurt more than if he ripped out her heart and flung it across the room. Suddenly she had to get out of the room. As she turned to leave, Grissom grabbed her arm, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Yes?" She asked, struggling to keeping her voice steady.
"What's wrong, Sara?"
Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside her. What was wrong??? Was he completely insane? Blind? Or just stupid? Couldn't he see the gulf between them? Or did he just not care? Probably that, Sara thought bitterly, and composed herself. "Nothing, Grissom."
His looked said quite clearly that he didn't believe her. His expression changed as realization spread across his features, and he said, "Is this about when you asked me out?"
Sara could hardly breathe. Did he understand at all what he was talking about? Tears threatened to spill and she blinked furiously. She refused to cry in front of him, to be weak in front of him. "No, Grissom," Sara responded, her voice dripping acid. She grabbed her pager, which she had set down on his desk, and gave him one last look. "I don't have any regrets. Doubts about what I've done, but no regrets." Then she turned and walked from the room, tears already dripping down her cheeks.
There was most definitely something wrong, and it was that she knew he would never understand.