Issues by SLynn
Disclaimer: I own only the thoughts in my head and the characters you don't recognize.
Chapter 24: Drawing Blanks
Greg wasn't sure how to react. He'd woken up after ten the next morning, got through his shower, taken his daily dose of Elavil and gotten half way dressed before he'd even realized. Sara hadn't come home.
His first thought was to call her. See if she was alright. Confirm what he suspected, that she'd just gone to her own place for the day. Sara had done that before when they'd fought, but considering there was a madman on the loose seemingly targeting their place of work, he got worried.
Greg had heard her phone ring twice on his end before hanging up. He was being stupid. He was overreacting. She was home, at her home. Sara was fine. Likely all he'd do right now by calling her was make things worse.
He hadn't even set his phone back down when it rang.
"Hey," he said into it, knowing it was Sara. "I didn't mean to wake you."
Greg listened as she'd said he hadn't. That she was actually still at work going through case files related to Evan Jacobsen. She'd gotten on a roll and lost track of time.
"I'll let you go then," was all he said before saying goodbye and hanging up.
Mentally kicking himself, he knew he shouldn't have called. Greg, despite feeling rested and much better then the previous night, was still angry he'd only forgotten long enough because he he'd been momentarily panicked. He wasn't ready to make concessions yet, admit to her that she'd had several valid points. That could wait. It made him sick to fight with her, but even if she had been mostly right, he still felt she'd been way over the top about it.
He really considered not even calling Dr. Tracey, but knew he should. True, he felt better. Had been feeling better for the last few days, but by no means did he feel good. He still clung to the hope that it was the flu and was now hoping for some verification of it from his doctor. Something he could use to prove to Sara she'd been overreacting.
His next call was to her office. Dr. Tracey's receptionist was able to get him in late that day, which was fine. He had an appointment with Dr. Fenton that afternoon at five. He had them now every Tuesday and Friday at the same time. Greg had no luck convincing him yet that didn't need the drug treatment anymore and was seriously considering seeking out another opinion. He could ask Dr. Tracey for a recommendation today.
With nothing else to do, Greg grabbed a book of the shelf and read for an hour until Sara got home. She'd said hello on her way in and before she could ask he'd told her about his appointment. Sara smiled at him but said nothing more about it. She sensed he was trying to pick a fight with her, but she wasn't taking the bait. Greg, in a bad mood, was not an easy person to deal with; much like herself. It was one of those things she hadn't known about him before they'd become close. Part of it, she realized, was that he was normally so upbeat and even tempered that when he did get angry or upset it just seemed that much worse.
"Want to hear about the case?" she asked, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch, hoping to drawn him out of the funk he was obviously still in.
Despite himself, he was interested.
"What'd you get?" he asked, not really looking up from what he'd been doing.
"Two more cases," she said glad they'd found something to talk about civilly.
"We've all been through the files like ten times each. We couldn't have missed any."
"But they were missed because they weren't strangled and they weren't women."
"How do they fit?" Greg asked putting the book down and finally giving her his full attention.
"We'd all assumed the guy had just deviated from his norm and took advantage of the opportunity. Evan Jacobsen was drowned. Hands bound and his feet tied. No signs of a struggle. But it was too clean. This guy knows how to strangle and he knows how to drown. He's had practice."
"So you looked for other drowning victims."
"And found two that are suspicious. The first was a homeless man found in the local reservoir just over a year ago. It was ruled an accidental drowning but the man had marks on his wrists, like they'd been bound, but nothing was on him at the scene."
"Where was he found?"
"North Vegas."
Greg nodded and Sara continued on.
"The second was just about seven months ago, ruled an overdose. Apparently the victim had been having problems and had attempted suicide before. But the case has a number of suspicious circumstances like the fact that the drugs found in his system were all of the pharmaceutical variety, not consistent with anything actually found at the scene."
"But you think it's related?"
"Yeah, I do."
Then so did Greg. Sara had an almost sixth sense about these things.
They did okay the rest of the day. They'd fell into an uneasy truce, agreeing to disagree for the time being and just pretend for awhile. Sara took a nap not long after they'd talked about the two new files and Greg left her a note saying he'd be back after six before leaving for Dr. Tracey's and Dr. Fenton's offices respectively.
Dr. Tracey was glad he'd come.
They talked about his symptoms, about the worry that had really gotten him there, and to his delight she pretty much agreed with him. Likely, it was the flu. The chemotherapy had been in his system for over a year and had weakened it. Any disease he got for the next three to four months was going to be a lot harder to kick then before. However, to be safe she drew some blood. Just to be safe.
His initial delight was short lived when Dr. Tracey, after agreeing with him, proceeded to agree with Sara as well. She was almost livid that Greg, despite knowing he was sick, had gone into work for several days when he should have been home resting. It had been irresponsible and he was setting himself up for further complications.
All in all she thought he'd be fine. He looked a bit dehydrated but considering as sick as he'd been, it was to be expected. To her, Greg looked very much like he was coming off of a rather bad bout of the flu and nothing more. Only one thing didn't sit right with her, his eyes. When she'd checked for dilation, they hadn't reacted in the way she'd expected. It was almost delayed.
"Something wrong?" he asked, as she continuously shown the light in and out of his eyes.
"Have you fallen down lately?" she asked, very serious now. "Had any type of head injury?"
"No," Greg answered, "Well, none I can remember."
He'd smiled he'd said it, clearly meant it as a joke but Dr. Tracey didn't laugh. Normally she would, but this was confounding to her. She turned off the light in her hand and switched the brighter office lights back on, continuing to give him a very serious look. Very Grissom like.
"Greg," she began, "I have to ask you to be completely honest with me. Have you taken any type of drugs in the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours?"
"Just my Elavil. This and every morning."
She didn't say anything else, just continued to give him that look.
"You're not talking about prescription drugs are you?" he asked, caught somewhere between amused and upset.
The way he'd asked that had seemed to be enough to convince her, but it didn't explain his other reaction. Greg's pupils were definitely off and that could be a serious problem.
"I want you back next week for a cat scan," she said, going back over to her and writing it down on a card for him. "How is three o'clock on Monday?"
"Like I have a choice," he answered, taking the card.
"Get some rest," she said walking him to the door, "I'll be calling your office and letting them know that you won't be back until Friday."
"Fine, fine," he said shaking her offered hand, not angry so much as resigned.
"Oh," she asked before he'd gotten too far away, "how is it working with Dr. Fenton?"
"Okay," Greg answered truthfully, turning back towards her a bit. "I'm on my way there next. It's just he doesn't want to take me off of the meds yet and I can't get my job back until he does. I feel kind of stuck."
"You can always get a second opinion, you know that right?"
"Yeah, I've been told," Greg answered, looking at his feet.
"I'll get a list together for you on Monday," she said with a smile.
"Thanks a lot Dr. Tracey."
Sara had dinner ready by the time he'd gotten back. Greg was a bit quieter then usual, but she wasn't too surprised. Sometimes when he'd come back from his sessions he was that way. Sometimes he was still reliving whatever it was they'd discussed, thinking it all over.
"Nick and Amy are stopping by," she said after a few minutes of completely unbroken silence.
Greg nodded but said nothing. He wasn't even touching his food just occasionally taking a sip of water and rubbing his forehead.
"I guess Brass wants a few undercover cops trailing her for awhile considering that you found her hair in the last letter."
He still wasn't looking at her. Didn't seem to be looking at anything. He looked dazed.
"Greg," she said, hating to ask but knowing she had too, "are you alright?"
"I'm fine…"
Greg stopped mid-sentence and stared at her. Really stared. It was the oddest thing. For the life of him he couldn't remember her name. It was just a blank, a complete blank.
He stood up and walked into the living room.
"What's wrong?" Sara called after him, following his lead.
Greg turned to her and could almost hear it in his head. He knew who she was, what she did for a living. He could have told her any number of facts about her life right then, just not her name. Why couldn't he remember her name?
"Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to guess?" she asked now, growing impatient, slightly agitated even.
"Sara," he said suddenly as it came to him straight out of the blue. Loudly even, pointing at her as he did it. Relieved.
"What?"
He turned away from her just as suddenly.
"I think I'm just going to go lay down. I need some rest. You were right; I've been doing too much lately. Trying too hard. It's just all catching up to me."
Greg was already retreating to the bedroom, Sara fast on his heels. He didn't want to tell her what had just happened. It was still scary as hell for him. She'd have an ambulance with a police escort there in less then ten minutes if he told her that after Dr. Tracey had wanted a cat scan he was suddenly drawing blanks with something as simple as her name.
"What just happened back there?" she asked. She wasn't letting him get away easy this time.
"I don't know."
It was the truth. He had no idea what was going on right now at all but she didn't believe him.
"I don't want to fight now," he tried, biting his lips. Practically begging her with his eyes to just drop it. "I'm just going to get some rest. Dr. Tracey's ordered me out of the office until Friday and I swear I'm not going to so much as lift a finger around her until then. I'm going to sleep, eat and drink and maybe read a few books. That's it."
Sara nodded. She felt that something was horribly wrong, something he wasn't telling her, but she had no proof. Strange behavior from Greg wasn't an entirely new thing, but he was pushing his own standards on weird right now.
"Do you want me to let you know when they get here?"
"Who?" he asked as he pulled off his shoes as he sat on the edge of the bed.
"Who?" she repeated, "Nick and Amy. I just told you they were stopping by."
"Oh," he said sounding a bit startled, "no. I really should just get some sleep."
Sara nodded, leaned into him and kissed him on the cheek. He had a feeling she was doing it more to see if he was running a fever again then out of any sort of affection at the time, but didn't stop her. Greg had other things on his mind at the moment. Like exactly when Sara had told him anything about Nick and Amy. Try though he did, he just couldn't remember her saying a word about it before that moment.
And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the only thing he really could remember about the evening was what he couldn't. It had all been a blank until he'd tried saying Sara's name.