Happy Enough by SLynn
Disclaimer: Any character you recognize, not mine.
Notes: Thanks for the reviews! I love them and read them all and take them all very much to heart. I've noticed a new trend, concern at where this story is going. First, it wasn't ever my intent to make this any type of relationship story, it just happened that way. My only plan was to write a story about Greg. Second, now that you think about it, Greg and the new lab tech is a bit over done I guess I never noticed that, but that's not where I'm headed with this. Third, unfortunately there is no miracle cure for cancer, I wish there was, so this story will not end with Greg being cured. He's going to get better, treatment is going to help, but honestly cancer treatment takes years. He couldn't possibly go into the hospital one time and be cured. Hopefully I've calmed some fears (maybe not so much for the anti-Greg/Sara shippers) and as always, I hope you like the story.
Chapter 22: Indifference
A week after being released from the hospital Greg met with Dr. Tracey again. She felt very strongly that they had finally found the right course of treatment, his bone marrow tests kept coming back with reduced concentrations of cancer, but she was worried about his overall health. The chemotherapy was taking a toll on his body. The original plan had been for Greg to go back into the hospital in another two weeks, but Dr. Tracey didn't think that was wise. She wanted to try outpatient treatment again starting next week.
Greg was excited. He hadn't wanted to go back into the hospital. He wanted to keep his life as normal as he could, really meaning he wanted to go back to work. Dr. Tracey wasn't to certain about that. She knew it would probably be the best thing for his morale but Greg had a stressful job. However, his enthusiasm to regain normalcy was contagious. She'd agreed, but again insisted on a modified schedule with minimum hours. This time she'd left off the addendum of 'no field work'. It was truly a great day.
He was going back that Monday.
During the time before he headed back he'd seen a lot of his friends. Most nights someone would stop by to chat or just watch television with him, sometimes they'd play games or rent a movie. It just depended. Greg had become pretty close friends with Amy during this time. There was nothing too it, nothing beyond friendship in either of their eyes. He'd flirt with her because she was a girl, but it was meaningless. You couldn't really even call it flirting, it was more like teasing. She recuperated in the same easy going fashion and he began to realize she really didn't know anyone else in the area and was probably just lonely. Not everyone saw it that way.
Nick for one was really giving him hell. He never commented on it in front of Amy, he didn't know her well enough to feel comfortable teasing her himself, but Greg knew his opinion. He'd tried explaining that if anything he felt like her older brother, but Nick shrugged him off. Warrick was worse because he just said nothing but occasionally smirked at the two of them. Catherine thought the whole thing was sweet, once more reminding him of his mother, but also kept her mouth shut. Grissom was what he always was, thoroughly detached from the situation. He hadn't even noticed. Sara only showed a steady indifference which didn't seem right.
The night before his first shift back Greg had specifically asked no one to stop by. He knew he needed rest. He also needed to convince his parents that coming back wasn't necessary. He ended up spending half the night on the phone with them doing just that. They'd been hesitant, but after really listening to Greg knew he was right.
After getting as much rest as possible and spending half the day in a kind of nervous agitation, Greg made his way to the crime lab. He got there early and it was a good thing. Sitting in his car Greg was feeling flooded with memories of his last night there. He hadn't thought about it in a long time, hadn't thought about what coming back would be like. He knew that only Grissom and the rest of the team knew about what had really happened, Greg hadn't told anyone else, even Amy, but he still felt paranoid.
He'd sat in his car a good solid half hour before someone opened the door and slid into the passengers' seat.
"I saw you pull up," Grissom said evenly. He didn't have to add that he was concerned. It wasn't like him to say things like that, but Greg knew it was true.
"Yeah," Greg said letting out a sigh. "I'm just trying to build up the suspense."
"What are you worried about?"
"Everything." Greg had answered at first, but knew Grissom wanted more then that. "Mostly that people will avoid me. Mostly that they won't."
"You're pretty much guaranteed one or the other," Grissom said with a hint of a laugh.
"Win-win," Greg said flatly, hands still on the wheel.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
Greg thought it over.
"No one looks me in the eye. They all talk loudly behind my back. I throw up in the staff meeting and then pass out in the field. After that you give my job to Hodges, permanently condemning me to the lab."
"Glad you've thought this through."
"My motto is 'be prepared'."
"Okay, so what's the best thing that could happen?"
Again, Greg gave it a moment's consideration.
"I go in there like nothings happened. We all get along like we use too. I do not throw up or pass out anywhere. And you promote me shift supervisor so that I can fire Hodges."
Grissom laughed.
"I'm not sure all of that's going to happen just yet."
"A man can dream."
"Greg, you're going to be fine."
"I know; I just don't know that I know."
"Come on, let's go." Grissom said, shaking his head at Greg's logic.
Greg got out of the car and went inside with Grissom. It didn't go too badly. He did get the odd look or two, but mostly people were happy to see him. Several people welcomed him back, others just smiled or nodded. A few flat out refused to look his way. It had all been a bit easier to take with his boss at his side.
"See," Grissom said once they'd reached the break room.
"Yeah, that wasn't at all like torture," Greg said, still a bit on edge from any type of attention.
Grissom smiled at him and left for his office. Greg decided to go drop off his things and wait it out till the beginning of shift brief. He had no earthly clue as to what was happening in the lab, having been out of it for so long, but it didn't take long before he felt at home again.
Soon the rest of the team joined him as the shift actually began. Grissom knew he didn't have to welcome Greg back, and knew that Greg didn't really want that type of attention, so he said nothing about his presence. Grissom simply said what he had to say about the new assignments and back briefed the team on what had taken place during the day.
Greg busied himself as best he could. It was hard to get the feel for a case midway through but he wasn't doing too badly. What wasn't making it any easier was Sara. She'd been strangely quiet for the last hour and a half. At first Greg had attributed it to sheer volume of work. They'd both been doing print comparisons since shift started without luck. It was tedious, but not necessarily silent work. He realized she was purposely not speaking after asking her a few tester questions, trying to start any type of conversation and drawing only the obligatory head nods as needed.
"Are you mad at me?" he finally asked, after his fifth and final attempt at levity.
"No," was her crisp response.
"Because you seem kind of…"
"Greg," she cut him off, "we've got a lot of work to do. I've got a lot of work to do. I don't have time for twenty questions. There's nothing wrong. Now, if you could just go down to the lab and try not to take all night, I need those DNA results for this case."
Greg had started to leave, but something about the tone of her voice caused him to suddenly stop and come back.
"What did you mean by that exactly?" he asked in a somewhat amused voice.
"I meant that you should not be standing here."
"No, I got the 'fetching' part of your speech. What I want to know is what did you mean by telling me to 'try' and not take all night'?"
"I think that's obvious."
"Not to me."
Sara stared at him. Stared daggers at him. Nick wasn't the only one who had done some speculating about Greg's involvement with Amy. At first she thought it was alright, good even. In theory Greg interested in someone else was good because then he'd no longer be making puppy eyes at her. However, in this theory she hadn't accounted for exactly how much it might hurt. It was denial of the worst sort.
"Does everyone think that Amy and I are together?" he asked, still sounding amused.
Sara only continued working and raised her eyebrows in response, indicating that it should be obvious that they did.
"Does it bother you?" he asked as he sat back down next to her.
"Of course not," she said, still pouring through the results but not actually seeing them.
Greg was really tempted to press the issue but hadn't. He was also no longer in anyway as amused as he had been when he thought she might be jealous. He'd just said fine and walked away. Sara turned to the door as soon as he'd gone, sorry for what had happened but not willing to change it. She really did want to be happy for him, to see him move on to someone else, but she couldn't do it. Not yet. It was too much to think about while trying to concentrate on the job and it kept coming back. That and the realization that he'd never denied that nothing was going on between him and Amy.
Greg took an extremely long time getting to the lab. Mainly because he'd walked around the building four times before actually going there. He had to clear his head. Sara was making him crazy. He didn't know what she wanted from him, if she wanted anything from him, and had no clue as to how he'd ever figure her out. But she was definitely in his head. Unshakable.
When he did finally reached the lab Amy frowned at him immediately.
"I need Sara's results if they're ready," he said flatly.
"Too late. She's already stopped by and got them herself about ten minutes ago. She asked about you too and didn't look happy."
"That's shocking," Greg said, flopping down onto the stool by the door.
"Is everything okay with you two?" Amy asked cautiously.
"Great. We have the perfect student-teacher relationship."
Again Amy frowned. Greg wasn't normally wry like this.
"It's nothing," he continued, waving her off not wanting to cast any type of suspicion. "We disagree fundamentally on, well, just about everything. It's nothing serious."
"Why don't you ask Grissom to have someone else train you?"
There was no right answer to that question. He'd never even considered it. Greg had been glad when he'd been told Sara would be training him. Was still glad to be working with her.
"No, she's good at her job. Dedicated and patient."
Amy smiled as he said this and he knew his voice must have slipped in to a tone that wasn't quite appropriate for the relationship he was describing, that of a student-teacher.
"Okay, patient might be going too far," he tried to continue as if he'd been joking. Amy wasn't buying it.
"Whatever you say."