A/N – Thanks to everyone who's reading and reviewing, you guys all kick arse. Many thanks to Ash and Amorith, you girls are the best!
Wednesday – Day 4, 01.01
Sara woke up surprised to find herself plunged into darkness. Confused at the loss of time, she tried to move to check her watch but found herself wedged snugly between two warm bodies. She realised suddenly just how cold it was in the cave and, forgetting her watch, snuggled back down into her sleeping bag and against one of the bodies.
She breathed in deeply, recognising the smell of Grissom immediately. She remembered falling asleep next to Catherine and gathered that she was the person snuggled close against her back. Despite the warmth given off by her two friends she shivered and bore herself closer into Grissom's side. She felt Catherine sigh into the back of her neck and move closer to her.
God, thought Sara, this is interesting. She bit her lip to stop the laugh that threatened to escape and tried to relax.
She realised with annoyance that she was now wide awake and shut her eyes, desperately praying that she would just fall back into sleep.
She physically jumped, causing Catherine to moan slightly, when she heard Grissom whisper, "Are you okay?"
She lifted her head, effectively burying her face into his neck and murmured, "Sure, why?"
"You're awake," he whispered.
She smiled against his neck, wondering whether he was enjoying this half as much as she was and replied, "So are you."
"Hmm," he agreed quietly.
"So are you okay?"
"I'm just thinking," he said truthfully.
"About?"
"I'm worried," he answered softly.
"This is a good camp, they wont find us here," Sara replied.
"No, I'm worried about you."
"You are? Why?" Sara asked, surprised.
"What to you do when you go home after shift?" he asked carefully.
Sara tensed up and frowned, "What do you mean?"
"What do you do? Do you go anywhere or see anyone or… do anything?"
"Not this again Grissom…"
"I just," Grissom sighed, "I just realised I don't know a heck of a lot about your life outside work, and I used to."
"Oh you remember way back then?" She asked innocently.
"Yes Sara, of course I remember."
"What else do you remember?" She asked and nudged his chin with her nose.
Grissom sighed and closed his eyes, the memories of their life before Vegas playing before him like a movie projected onto a screen.
"I remember you used to smile a lot more," he began, "I remember you used to smile at me a lot more. I remember you wanting to learn everything I could teach you and I remember wanting to teach you everything I knew."
Sara nodded, "Do you remember the airport?"
A deadly silence filled the cave and Sara wondered if he would ever answer her at all. Finally, he whispered, "Yes, I remember the airport."
"What happened at the airport Gris?" Sara whispered into his neck.
"I had to leave Sara, they needed me in Vegas," Grissom replied.
"I know, but what happened at the airport?" Sara said, desperate for him to tell her so she knew he remembered.
"You drove me. And I got out of the car – we were late, so I had to hurry. I was in such a rush and I didn't want to say goodbye. But I had to so I walked around to your side of the car and said goodbye through the open window," his voice faltered.
"And?" Sara breathed.
Grissom sighed, "And I leaned in and kissed you."
"And I wouldn't let go," Sara smiled into his neck.
"No," Grissom puffed out a small laugh, "You wouldn't. I ended up dragging you half out the window with your arms still around my neck."
"Hmm," Sara hummed into his neck and grinned at the memory, "You never mentioned it, I thought you'd forgotten."
"I could never forget that Sara," he replied quietly.
Sara sighed and relaxed against his body. Suddenly incredibly tired, she slowly drifted off and entered a blissful sleep.
Wednesday – Day 4, 07.37
Catherine woke up to find herself rugged up in two sleeping bags, using Sara's stomach as a pillow. She groaned and slid the sleeping bags down to her waist, welcoming the fresh warm breeze that blew softly into the cave.
"Oh look who's decided to wake up," she heard Nick say from the sitting area nearer the opening that lead to the river.
She groaned again, "I hurt."
"I'm not surprised with all the walking you did. Oh wait a second," she heard him move around the cave and come to stand in front of her. He had something in his hand and just as the flash went off she realised what he was doing.
"Hey!" she growled and sat up abruptly. Sara mumbled something and turned away, snuggling into the empty space beside her.
"No photos before breakfast," she glared at Nick who was laughing at her.
"I forgot I brought this," he said and snapped another one of her quickly.
"Quit it Nick I mean it!" Catherine squealed, unable to keep from laughing at him.
"What's going on?" Sara asked sleepily.
"Nick's being an ass!" Catherine retorted and fell heavily back into a lying position.
"I hurt," Sara grumbled and sat up slowly. She looked around her. Both Grissom and Warrick were gone. Greg was still sleeping soundly a couple of meters away from her.
"Where are the others?"
"They're keeping each other company on sentry duty – Grissom said something about 'having a talk' with Warrick or something. Don't ask me what that's about," Nick said shaking his head.
"Hmm, I don't think it's anything serious," Catherine said, "I think he just wants to make sure he's happy at CSI."
"Why, what do you know?" Nick asked her.
She shrugged, "He just mentioned it yesterday. He wanted to make sure I was okay, said he wanted to make sure we all were."
"Huh, okay that makes sense now," Sara said thoughtfully, "He sort of asked me about that too."
"He hasn't mentioned anything to me," Nick said.
"Nor me," Greg said sleepily.
"Oh he will," Catherine said, "I'm sure he wants to get around to everyone before the week is out."
Nick grinned, "That's kind of nice," he said and turned around quickly, "Who wants breakfast?"
**
After realising that Grissom, Nick and Warrick had been rotating sentry duty all night, Sara, Catherine and Greg set out to make their day as easy as possible. They insisted that they would be the only ones on sentry duty during the day, and Greg had taken to fishing in the river so that they could cook them a nice dinner once it became dark. They'd realised last night that their cave had a downside; they couldn't light a fire in it or they would die of smoke inhalation. A minor detail that they had overlooked when settling in, thus the massive group hug session during the middle of the night.
Although they would have loved to just sit back and enjoy a lazy day of fishing and prettying up the inside of their cave, they realised they had to sit down and have a serious meeting.
With Sara and Greg up the tree keeping a look out and the other four sitting around the ground below, the meeting was called to order.
"So," Grissom began, "We now have five stolen treasures added to our collection here, including Team Boston's flag."
"Boston? Is that who those guy's were?" Catherine asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Apparently – according to their flag we grabbed anyway," Grissom said, "So, we have five more…"
"What were the other ones?" Greg interrupted from above.
Grissom sighed, "The flag, the spatula, the walkie-talkies, a useless wooden sculpture or something and a fry-pan."
Catherine giggled, "They really have a weird sense of humour don't they?" she said referring to the competition officials.
"It seems so. So – five more treasures, but we obviously need to get more because we don't know how the other two teams are going. Sure, we could relax and decide we might have enough to win this game, or we could go out there and make sure we win. I want to win," he announced, "And I think we can. We've got good ideas and we've got brains and we've all got guts. What do you say?"
He looked around at the grinning faces and rested on Greg's.
"You forgot to say one thing Gris," he said, "This is War!"
Nick and Warrick giggled while Sara slapped Greg on the back. Catherine looked at Grissom as if to say 'you think we can win with this mob of clowns?'
"Okay okay, calm down everyone," Warrick finally became serious, "Sorry Grissom. I agree – completely. I think we have to do another raid, but for some reason I'm just not so confident in the ideas that we thought of before. I mean, I sure as hell don't trust anyone out here unless they're you guys – what will make these teams any different? Nothing against our fine ladies here but I don't think just walking up to a couple of guy's and flashing their pearly whites is going to cut it, nor do I think that anyone will trust us enough to forge a fake alliance with us."
"You're right," Grissom agreed, "So what do you suggest?"
Warrick shrugged, "I'm fresh out of wisdom right now."
Catherine frowned and tried to remember what she'd been thinking about when they were hiking all day yesterday.
"Cath's got something," Sara said from above, earning her a gaze from everyone – including Catherine. "What? You do, go on."
"Okay, well I was thinking…"
"Uh oh," Nick said and grinned at her.
Catherine ignored him and continued, "We're at our strongest when we're all together right? If something happened to one of us, we'd become weaker. The rules said anything goes and I guess that means that we can capture people and take them out of the game…"
"Kidnap people from their own group?" Warrick asked, suddenly amazed.
"Uh, well yeah – think about it. We've got tons of rope, we can tie them up and feed them and give them water. The team they belong to won't have a clue where he's gone…"
"We could leave a ransom note!" Greg squealed, "Telling them to give as a treasure in return for their friend!"
Nick laughed, "And if it doesn't work then we'll kidnap another until their numbers are reduced and we can go in and claim their treasure!"
Grissom smiled wryly, "This is very good, if we can pull it off."
"Of course we can pull it off!" Sara called from above, "It'll take a hell of a lot of planning and a hell of a lot of luck – but we can pull it off," she said confidently.
"Okay," Grissom said and looked around his group, "I guess we have a plan of action then."
Wednesday – Day 4, 13.28
Greg sat on a rock by the edge of the river, a makeshift fishing rod dangling into the water.
"Hey," Sara said quietly as she ambled towards him and took a seat on the rock next to his.
"Hi," he said and looked intently at the water.
"Catch anything yet?"
He shook his head, "Nothing yet."
Sara nodded and looked out across the river. This was nice. She took the opportunity to turn slightly and study Greg. He looked very serious when he was concentrating, and for some reason he was concentrating extremely hard on the water in front of him.
"What's up?" she asked.
Greg shrugged, "I don't know, I think I'm just tired."
Sara frowned and shuffled closer to him, reaching out to put a hand on his knee. "How have you been Greg?"
A small grin formed on his lips, "Isn't this Grissom's job?"
Sara smiled, "Apparently, but I'd like to know how you are too. I've been so out of touch lately, I didn't realise until we came here."
"Everyone's been out of touch," Greg agreed and then took a deep breath, "I'm okay. I've been to see someone after the explosion but they say it'll take years for my hands to calm down, and they may never. It's something about going through a stressful ordeal, some people have it after they have operations and stuff like that."
Sara nodded, she hadn't been so out of touch with Greg that she didn't know about his shaking hands. In fact, she probably felt a little closer to him than anyone at work because they shared the explosion.
"So what about you, did you see anyone?" Greg asked her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, did you go and see someone to talk about it?"
"You mean a shrink?" Sara laughed, "No, why would I need a shrink?"
Greg shrugged, "It helped me, it's still helping me. It's good to have someone that listens."
"Yeah, well, I didn't go through nearly as much as you did," Sara reasoned with him.
"That's not true – you went through exactly the same thing, I just ended up in hospital. Just because my physical injuries were a little worse doesn't mean the emotional injuries are any different."
Sara looked at him for a moment and then grinned, "Is that what your shrink told you?"
Greg sighed, "If you need someone to listen, Sara, I'm here with Dumbo ears. Always."
Unable to resist the urge this time, Sara reached out and pulled Greg into a hug. "Thanks," she whispered.
A small cough sounded from behind them and they broke apart to find Grissom there, eyebrows raised.
"I'm going to relieve Nick and Warrick from their post at the other group, did anyone want to come?" He looked at Sara as he asked this, prompting her to stand up.
"Sure, I'll come," she said and turned towards Greg, "Keep fishing Dadio," she ruffled his hair and turned back towards Grissom.
He frowned at her and she frowned right back at him. "Don't be stupid," she said as she passed him and headed into the cave to collect her things.
She took more time than necessary to get ready to go with Grissom, hoping that in the time she was absent that he would sit down and have his talk with Greg. She'd been surprised to hear that Greg had been going to see a shrink but she reasoned with herself and decided it was highly plausible. The hospital probably set it up. Should she have gone to see one after the explosion? She shrugged the thought away, it wasn't something she wanted to think about.
She exited the cave to find Grissom waiting patiently for her.
"Alright," she said, "Let's go spy on Toronto."
TBC