Chapter Twelve: Apologies

It had taken Sara roughly twenty minutes after coming back to the cabin to realize what she had done was wrong. But it took even longer for her to do something about it. After all, she had expected Greg to come back, despite what she had said.

When the late hours of night slowly waned in to the early hours of the morning, Greg still had not returned. Sara knew that she had to find him, knowing that if anything had happened to him, she would never be able to forgive herself.

Sara shivered in the frosty morning air, as she closed the cabin door behind her. The snow crunched under her heavy boots as she walked towards the main road, her flashlight sweeping the area around her.

She thought about calling for him, but decided against it; after all, people were still sleeping. She had a few ideas where Greg might be, not very many places were open at this time, and it was too cold to stay outside. She doubted Greg would put his health at risk. At least she hoped he wouldn't.

Sara smiled grimly as she pushed her way inside the small diner. It was her third stop now, and she was thankful that she had finally found Greg. Now she was unsure of what to do next. He was sitting near the back at a booth, working on eating a piece of chocolate cake. Greg was the only person she knew that would indulge in chocolate when he was stressed. And he was already on his third piece, two other dishes piled on top of each other sat on the end of the table; Sara shook her head, there was no way that could be healthy.

Letting out a sigh, Sara pulled off her stocking cap as she made her way over to him, watching him for a moment before sitting down on the other side. He didn't say anything to her, didn't even acknowledge that she was there in any way. Sara couldn't blame him, twisting the cap in her fingers she was at a loss for words.

They sat like this for some time, when Sara could no longer stand it; she picked up her own fork, reaching across the table and stole a small piece of the cake for herself. It was a risk, Greg was already mad at her, but she was hungry and watching him eat wasn't helping. She wasn't sure what she had expected him to do, but was surprised when Greg only pushed the plate towards the middle of the table, so that she wouldn't have to reach as far.

Sara took a few more bites, watching Greg. The young man refused to meet her eyes, staring down at the table as he ate. Sara sighed as she finished another bite, breaking the silence for the first time. "Not bad," she told him quietly.

Greg only nodded, taking another bite himself. "House special," he mumbled.

It was quiet again; Sara glanced from Greg to her hands. "I'm sorry Greg," she told him softly, "I didn't mean any of it."

She was surprised when Greg nodded. "Yes, you did," he told her; she wasn't sure if it was anger that she heard behind his words.

"No, I didn't, I was angry, and I took it out on you. I shouldn't have, but I did. I'm really sorry."

"You're right, you know," Greg kept on talking, like he had never heard what she had said. "I don't stand up for myself." He let out a sigh, putting his fork down.

"Greg…"

He cut her off, "But you know what? It doesn't bother me. I learned a while back that it doesn't matter what you say, if someone has a set opinion about you, it's not going to change just because you tell them different."

Sara nodded, looking up at him. "True," she said softly.

"I know what happened, you know what happened, and those that actually care about us, will know too. That's good enough for me. It doesn't matter what I say, Neff is still going to think that I hit you. That won't change."

Sara nodded, just letting him ramble. Sometimes it was easier that way. The two found themselves talking quietly for some time, unaware that someone else was watching them until he had come up along side the pair. Greg grew quiet, not looking up at him as Sara bided him a short hello.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Randolph asked, looking from Greg to Sara. When she shook her head, he continued. "Mind if I join you?" he wondered.

With a sigh, Sara scooted over when it was apparent that Greg wasn't going to. The detective sat down, waving off the waiter that had come to by to check up on them. "I thought you two might want to know that all charges have been dropped," he told them quietly.

Greg looked up at him for the first time, surprised. "Why the sudden change?" he asked.

Randolph shrugged, "I guess I've worked this job long enough to know when to trust my gut."

Greg nodded solemnly, putting his fork down on the now empty plate. "So that's it?"

Randolph nodded, "We have no sufficient evidence. Sara doesn't fit the profile for an abuse case. That plus the little spat you two had outside, if Greg didn't hit you then, then he wouldn't hit you at all."

Sara grimaced, "You heard us?"

Randolph smiled a little, "Well, you two weren't exactly whispering," he commented. "I never really thought it possible. Jim, he doesn't mean any harm. The guy just takes cases like these very serious and bit on the personal side. You perceive things differently when they've happened to you. For many people, they look and say 'how can that possibly happen', for some, they see the same thing and say 'why didn't someone do something'."

Sara agreed quietly. She knew what he was trying to explain, she took abuse cases personally as well. "So that's his deal then?"

Randolph shrugged, "I guess you could say that, but keep it quiet. He doesn't like his past brought up. I've got to get going now. You two take care."

Greg nodded as the detective stood up. "We need to get to class," he told Sara softly. She disagreed.

"Forget class Greg, you're exhausted."

He looked up at her with a small sigh, "Sara, I was exhausted yesterday. Besides, we can't miss class. Each one costs about 150, if you want to explain 150 to Ecklie, than you go right ahead."

She let out a small sigh, "Fine, we'll go. But no arguing, when it's over, you're going right to bed."

Greg shook his head, smiling softly, "Yes mother," he glanced up at her, glad to find that she was smiling back. "Let's get going."

Class went quicker than either Greg or Sara expected. They had moved from taking notes, to working on a staged B&E, Candi had joined them. The pair had held back, letting Candi do most of the work. It was fairly easy, something Greg and Sara could have wrapped up in only a few hours, but Candi was much slower. Neither of them seemed to mind, helping the youth whenever he got stuck. The only downside was that they would be using the full two days to finish.

Arriving back at the cabin that night, Greg was in his bed shortly after taking off his coat and gloves. He hadn't even bothered changing into different clothes, only crawling under the covers after kicking his boots off. It hadn't taken long for him to fall asleep.

Greg woke up some time later that night. He blinked a few times, not quite sure what had woken him; he was surprised to find Sara next to him, sound asleep. She must have crawled in with him sometime after falling asleep.

Letting out a yawn, Greg rubbed her back gently before wrapping an arm around her waist, closing his eyes again. They were open a moment later, he was sure this time. Someone was in their cabin.

Greg shook Sara lightly, rolling his eyes at her incoherent mumbling. She was definitely not a morning person. Reaching over her, he fiddled with the lamp cord, confused as to why it wouldn't turn on. Whoever it was, was coming closer, was nearly over them when Greg grasped the flashlight next to the clock, taking a clumsy swing at the intruder as he switched it on.

"Easy!"

The startled voice caught Greg off guard, waking Sara at the same time. She sat up quickly, nearly bumping heads with Greg in the process. Greg shone the light on the prowler, his breaths coming in short huffs.

"What the hell?" Sara yelled, as Greg let out a sigh, sitting up. He could hear the man draw in a long breath as he sat down on the unoccupied bed.

"What is going on?" Greg asked, glancing around. He hadn't realized how dark it was until now. "Why aren't the lights working?"

"Power's been cut," Randolph explained briefly, catching his breath as well .He had been just as startled as they had.

"What do you mean cut? And what are you doing in here? Trying to give us heart attacks?" Sara asked, her voice tense and high.

Randolph held at a hand, motioning for her to stop, as well as blocking out the glare of the light. Greg lowered it some as he began explaining.

"Someone cut the main power source. We're trying to get it fixed; I was helping when someone radioed in a disturbance in this area. You're door was open, and when I called in, no one answered. I was just checking to make sure everyone was okay."

Greg shook his head, "Our door couldn't have been open. I locked it when we got back, I'm sure of it."

"Disturbance, what kind of disturbance?" Sara wondered, rubbing her forehead.

"I don't know," Randolph admitted, "Someone said they saw something unusual. They wouldn't explain any further."

Sara shivered tensely, leaning against Greg. "You mean someone was in here? While we were sleeping?"

"I don't know, did you two have anything valuable that anyone would want?"

"Wallets maybe," Greg suggested, already retrieving his from the nightstand. He glanced over it quickly using the flashlight. "Everything's here," he commented.

"Same here," Sara responded, pulling her own from her coat pocket at the end of the bed. "Let me check my purse, I left in the bathroom."

Greg shook his head, leaning against the wall as Sara slowly climbed out of the bed. His heart was still pounding, it had scared him more than he wanted to admit, and the fact that someone had been in their cabin hadn't lightened his mood at all. Yawning he glanced back up as Sara fumbled in the darkness for the door handle.

"When will power be back?" Greg asked the detective.

"No idea, hopefully soon. This place gets eerie without any light."

Greg's response was cut short as a scream filled the air, encouraging him to his feet quickly, followed by Randolph as the pair stumbled into the bathroom after Sara, coming to a stop as pair of beady eyes glared back at them from the darkness. Sara stepped back into Greg as the figure suddenly lunged at them.

TBC