Happy Enough by SLynn

Disclaimer: Any character you recognize, not mine.

Notes: Thanks again to all of the reviewers! white rose01, BabyAlyx96, mary, A Bloom, cupotrevor, Sillie, Sandersgirl, tabs, Random Talker, Pip3, and Em.

tabs – yeah, I'm in dire need of a beta. Any volunteers?

Pip3 – I'd never noticed that, but I did notice for someone we all see to like, we certainly do inflict a lot of pain. I'm already plotting my next story and I'm determined to keep the Greg torture down to a minimum.

Em – happy birthday! Hopefully you can read this.

I'm kind of surprised how well chapter 23 went over. I liked it myself, but had originally written it much much worse, outcome wise. This chapter and the last were very difficult to write. I think the story is winding down, and that's why the updates are becoming so spaced out. Hopefully I'll have another chapter soon, just have a few things to decide. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 26: Confrontation

Greg was still fuming by the time they'd reached the lab. Amy had no luck trying to talk him out of it and she had tried. He knew he was overreacting. Knew there were easier ways of handling this, but it had just gotten to be too much for him to take. He'd reached his breaking point.

Greg went straight to Hodges lab without stopping. Amy veered off, headed for the break room, looking for anyone who might be able to reason with him.

"Sanders, aren't you suppose to be convalescing?" Hodges asked as he'd come in.

"You and me," Greg said not wanting to start another yelling match inside so soon after his last. "Outside."

"What is this, the OK corral?" Hodges asked in disbelief. He knew Greg was weird, but now he sounded insane.

"No. Just two co-workers clearing up some differences."

"How strong is that medication that they're giving you?"

Greg, hands clutched inside his jacket, barely contained himself. It took every bit of self restraint not to jump right across the counter and bang Hodges' head into it.

"Let's go," Greg said evenly. "I just want to talk."

"I've got work to do."

"Fine. We'll talk here."

Hodges looked up at him expectantly. Now that he had his attention, Greg wasn't sure what he'd been planning on saying.

"Well?" Hodges prodded.

"I'm sick of you talking about me and about my friends the way you do."

"Is that what this is about?"

"Shut up and let me finish," Greg said sounding strained. "I don't know why I'm your special little target for this crap, but don't go pulling my friends into it. You can say whatever you want about me, knock yourself out, but if you keep dragging Amy or Sara into this…"

"What's going on guys?" Nick asked from the doorway. Greg didn't have to turn around to know Amy wasn't far behind.

"Sanders' doesn't seem to like me talking about him and his little girlfriends."

Greg hadn't realized he'd moved, but must have because Nick's hand was on his shoulder pulling him back. Hodges actually looked a bit disturbed by the sudden change. He wasn't use to Greg standing up for himself, let alone lunging at him.

"Come on Greg," Nick said, gently pulling on his arm.

"I mean it," Greg said, refusing to move, staring right at Hodges.

Nick pulled a bit harder on his shoulder and he finally turned and left. Amy followed them down the hall, up towards the roof.

"What the hell?" Nick asked as they got outside.

"What?"

"You know what; you're going to get fired for that kind of crap. You can't go making threats."

"I didn't make a threat."

"Only because I stopped you."

"Yeah," Greg said, turning to him "why'd you do that?"

"I know it's been a bad week for you, but what happened?"

Greg kind of half pointed to Amy before sitting down. She caught Nick up on the basics, once more skipping the exact details of what had been said. Greg's head was killing him and he knew that he wasn't going to make his doctors appointment now. He was just exhausted.

"We all know the guy's an asshole," Nick said turning to Greg as soon as Amy had finished. "There's never been any doubt. You should have just slipped some milk of magnesia into his coffee like last time."

"That was fun, but it's not the point."

Nick and Amy stood by, waiting for Greg to get to the point.

"I'm tired of him feeding people lies about my life, alright?"

"No one believes him," Nick responded and immediately knew he'd said the wrong thing.

"No one?" Greg asked getting back to his feet. "You believed him, right? About Sara and me. Thought that was funny. And what about Amy? I can't have friends outside of the hospital without there being something going on."

"Greg," Amy tried reasoning. "I'm sure Nick didn't mean it like that."

"I don't believe what he says," Nick said by way of defense. "And I'm sorry about that, all of it. I didn't know it was causing problems. I was only joking."

"It's not funny. My life is not funny. It's a goddamn Greek tragedy."

"I'm sorry," Nick repeated. He hadn't seen Greg this upset before and he clearly wasn't done. Amy looked from one to the next clearly worried. Greg looked like he might throw a punch at him and Nick looked like he might just let him.

"Okay," she said gingerly placing herself between the two of them. "Let's all take some deep breaths…"

"I'm not doing Lamaze again," Greg said, still looking tense but not as much.

"This is my fault," Amy continued. "I shouldn't have told you."

Even as she tried to do away his anger, she couldn't help the fresh tears that came to her eyes. Amy quickly turned her back and walked a few steps away. Greg had started to walk to her and comfort her but Nick beat him to it.

"No, I'm fine," she said gently shrugging him off. "It's just you stupid men and your stupid testosterone."

Greg hadn't thought he could at the moment but he laughed. Amy, not bigger then five foot four, actually stomping her foot in anger was anything put frightening. Nick must have just barely been holding his own laughter in, because as soon as heard Greg, he joined him.

Greg and Nick hadn't parted on the best of terms that night, but they'd at least been talking. Amy drove Greg home but didn't bother coming up. He was beat and she knew it. He needed rest and probably just wanted to be alone.

As he'd expected, Greg missed his morning appointment. He rescheduled with Dr. Tracey for the next day and spent most of the afternoon expecting his second call from Grissom telling him they'd need a talk. It didn't happen. Hodges must have kept quiet about their talk.

Heading in later then usual, Greg wasn't at the lab until nearly nine that night. Amy and Nick were both off so at least he didn't have that awkwardness to contend with, but Sara was on duty.

He'd avoided her pretty well for the first two hours, but she finally caught up with him. Greg had been review surveillance tapes from a convenience store robbery turned homicide. The store had three cameras and three sets of tapes. The problem was that they'd each been rewound prior to being sent over for review. They knew the exact date and approximate time of the crime, but the tapes themselves were only time logged, not date stamped.

It made for one incredibly boring job. So much so that Greg drifted off mid-tape and only realized this when he heard the door open behind him.

Mumbling under his breath and pausing the fast forward button, Greg turned round to find Sara.

"Sorry," she said "I didn't make you lose your concentration, did I?"

"It's doubtful," Greg said, stretching his arms, "I fell asleep sometime around the third slurppy spill."

"I can see how this would be riveting."

"It probably could be if there was sound."

Sara sat down beside him.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you first, about me going to Griss. I was going to, but I didn't want another fight."

"I understand," Greg said despite feeling the opposite.

"Just given everything happening between us lately…"

"Sara, you don't have to explain. I'm not mad, you're right. It's not a good idea for you to be training me, not right now. We should probably just give each other some space and it'll all be fine. It'll blow over soon enough and we can get back to normal."

Greg had restarted the VHS recorder, playing the tape again, just to have something to look at other then her. Sara looked at him intently for a few seconds.

"Is that how you really feel?"

"I don't know," Greg relented. "It's what I want to feel, so maybe yes. I just want things like they were. We were friends, I wasn't so angry with everyone all the time. I could hold down a meal."

Sara chuckled a bit as he said this.

"I'm serious," he continued, sounding anything but. "I hardly know myself right now. Everything's changing and I don't want it too. Can't stop it."

"I'm worried about you," Sara said taking one of his hands into hers absentmindedly. "We're all worried about you."

"I haven't exactly been stable, I know. But I'm not going to do anything like before; I don't feel like that anymore. Honest"

"Good," she said, squeezing his hand slightly.

"That's probably not a good idea," he said looking down at their hands. "You're going to make me yearn and I doubt tonight I'd have the same sort of resolve I did before."

He'd said it with a smile but really meant it. Sara being so close, so very close, and holding his hand wouldn't have normally been a bad thing. Tonight it felt like torture. Greg knew he couldn't have her; that no matter how it appeared she couldn't return his feelings in the same fashion. So he'd made up his mind to tell her no for as long as he could. Just push her away gently. Given his history, he was surprised he'd made it this far without completely becoming her love slave.

"Sorry," she said with a blush, letting go of his hand and moving a bit away. "I should go anyway. I have things to do and you have tapes to watch."

"All night," he said somewhat wearily.

"I just wanted to let you know that just because we're not working together anymore doesn't mean I don't care about what happens to you. I do Greg."

She didn't want any type of response from him, just left. Greg stared after her for a few minutes. Yep, love slave.