Chapter 40

Fire

Gil stared at the hotel from where he stood across the street with Sara, huddled under the awning of a shop to stay dry from a torrential rain that had begun to pour. He and Sara weren't the only ones struggling to keep dry from the rain. Many of the hotel guests who'd been evacuated from the building when the alarm had gone off were also there, muttering under their breaths and shivering in the cold.

There were flames teeming out of a window of the hotel on the fifth floor, the flames licking up the wall, blackening the bricks. Smoke billowed upwards. The police were there, they'd cautioned off the area with tape while Edinburgh's fire department tried to deal with the problem of the fire itself. Gil wondered if the fire would ever be under control, and if so, would they ever be allowed back in the building.

Sara rest her head on his shoulder wearily, she gave a sigh.

"Some night, huh?" Gil asked, he slipped his arms around her to keep her warm from the night chill. He held her close to him, rubbing her back.

"Every night since we've been here has been some night," Sara remarked, she slid her arms through the front opening of his jacket and around his waist, her hands were freezing.

Gil tried as much as he could to wrap the edges of the jacket he was already wearing around her shoulders to try and warm her, "We've had a little bout of bad luck, that's all."
"Bad luck? We're practically cursed," Sara sighed, "I don't know if it's just us or this city that's the problem."

"It's not us, it's me," Gil answered, "I'm the problem," he admitted.

Sara fell silent after this, she held onto him, staring across at the hotel, her eyes catching flickers of the firelight.

Gil kissed her hair tenderly, "do you want to go home?"

"Hmm?" Sara raised her head to look at him.

"We can leave…right now…"

"What about our stuff…and what about the flight we're booked out on – isn't it scheduled for the day after tomorrow?"

"We can leave our stuff and have it sent back for us…and I'll pay to get us a flight out of here if you want to leave. We'd be back in Vegas by tomorrow."

Sara hugged him tightly, "What about our last day together sightseeing and being together?"

"We'll be together in Vegas. We're not scheduled back at work until Monday," he shrugged, "But it's up to you…if you want to leave right now…we can."

"Yes…I want to go home," Sara murmured, she pecked his lips, thoughtfully she added, "to Vegas."

Gil wished he hadn't thought of offering to take her home there and then at all. From the moment he'd said it, he'd known it was a mistake, that it would be an exhausting rollercoaster ride of making arrangements.

He'd spent almost three hours at the airport trying to plan out how they would arrive back in Vegas. Eventually, they'd managed to get a plane out to London, from London, the nearest flight they could get was a flight to New York, and from there they could get a flight to Vegas. The whole ordeal had been excruciating and tiring. They had not been able to sleep much on the plane, barely more than three hours out of the two trips. And the moment they'd arrived in New York, Gil had spent an hour on the phone trying to get through to the hotel in Edinburgh to arrange to have their luggage returned. He was rather worried about his laptop – which was property of the lab. The cost wasn't what bothered him, it was the delicate information that one might find on it if they knew to look in the right places.

The moment they arrived in New York, both irritable and tired, Gil made his way to the nearest payphone to call Catherine at his office. He wasn't sure why but something was nagging at him to call and find out how things were at work.

He was fighting with a headache as he dialed his office number. He'd been listening to irate customers and screaming children on the last two planes, and lack of sleep had begun to take it's toll on his body, he felt himself winding down like a clock.

"Grissom's office, Catherine Willows speaking," Catherine soon responded, Gil could hear the frustration in her voice, and could relate with it at once. It was how he was feeling at the moment.

"It's me," he said hoarsely, jetlag not only having left him cranky and exhausted, but also with a sore throat

"My secret admirer?" Catherine asked, it became apparent at once he sounded so unlike himself that even Catherine hadn't recognized his voice.

"Grissom," he sighed.

"You sound like you've swallowed a frog," Catherine mused.

"I've spent the last eighteen hours in and out of airports and planes," he responded, "You'd sound like you'd followed a frog, too," he growled.

"In and out of airports and planes?" Catherine asked, "where are you now?" she asked quickly.

"New York," Gil sighed.

"Cutting the trip short?" Catherine asked. He could hear her shuffling paperwork and by the sounds of it, there was a lot of it on the desk. He winced thinking of how much he'd have to catch up with when he got back to work on Monday.

"Long story," Gil croaked. "Gist of it is, our hotel caught on fire. Me and Sara didn't feel like standing around all night in the pouring rain, we decided to catch the next flight out. Here we are in New York. We have an hour before we can catch our plane to Vegas."

"So when are you coming back to CSI?" she asked, something in her tone told him that she was more than eager to see him back at work.

"I don't know," he said, "I'm not scheduled to be back until Monday."

"Grissom…uhm…is there anyway you can maybe push that forward, just a little?" Catherine asked, he heard more shuffling of papers, he heard someone talking in the background, it sounded like Greg.

"What's going on?" Gil asked, he cleared his throat a little.

"I didn't want to say anything when you called the other night – you were kind of on Vacation time and I didn't want to worry you, but…since you're on your way back and all…" she trailed off.

"Cath?" he asked concernedly.

"We're swamped – seriously swamped. Even you would be freaking out right now. Nick got food poisoning, we had to send him home, he's been sick for two days. We're so understaffed right now, and the caseload keeps growing. The lab is backed up – Greg is hyperventilating, he nearly passed out the workload is so bad. Ecklie is on our backs every minute. He won't give us any workers because day shift is as swamped as we are. Your desk is overflowing with paperwork. Warrick and I are struggling to try keep on top of things here, we barely finish one case and three more come up…" she somehow managed to say all this without even stopping for breath, her voice was getting higher and her speech getting faster as she continued. "We've pulled in all the overtime we can and still can't catch up! I haven't seen my daughter in two days, I haven't slept in twenty-four hours, I'm having the worst period of my life and I don't even have time to buy tampons and the dispenser in the ladies restroom is all out!" she bluntly outburst, she sounded as if she were close to breaking point

Gil uttered an obscenity under his breath he normally wouldn't say at all, if he weren't so irritable, perhaps he might have found a nicer way to respond without using it at all.

"Excuse me, did I just hear you say the 'F' word?" Catherine asked, she sounded astounded.

"I'll be there when I can," was all Gil managed, he didn't feel humbled enough to say goodbye to her, he simply hung up the phone, he let his head rest against the cool metal of the payphone box for a moment, sighing at the momentary relief it brought to his headache.

Sara had gone to the airport restaurant to get some coffee, Gil found her at a table, sipping strong black coffee, in an attempt to make herself more alert with a caffeine rush. She was pale and her eyes were puffy with fatigue, her skin was coming up in blotches from lack of sleep. Gil felt terribly guilty he'd put her through all this.

"I got you coffee," Sara gestured to another cup on the table.

Gil sat down slowly, "I got through to Cath…" he raised the cup to his lips and sipped the coffee.

"And?" Sara asked, she raised her eyes from her cup to stare over at him.

"CSI is swamped with work…Nick is off sick with food poisoning, Greg is taking panic attacks because the lab is backed up, Ecklie is on everyone's backs, Cath is drowning in my paperwork, and apparently having the worst period of her life without having the time to buy tampons – and according to her the dispenser in the ladies room is all out."

Sara groaned, "so…we have to go to work?"

"It'd be advisable. Cath sounded more than stressed out – which indicates how bad it is. Catherine is more than capable of running CSI. If she's this upset, then everything is in chaos."

Sara sighed.

"I'm still the boss…I have to take care of my responsibility…" he rubbed his head, frowning at the pain. "If we wait 'til Monday, this backlog of work will come back and bite us in the ass."

"Fine," Sara finally agreed, she sipped her coffee,

"I'd advise to get what little sleep you can on the plane…" Gil sipped his own coffee, the hot liquid did nothing to soothe his sore throat.

Sara folded her arms, "see. I told you. We're cursed."

"I didn't doubt it for a second."

Thanks to the following people for reviewing:

Ambient Flames, Aidrianna, PhDelicious, and djkittycat for reviewing on chapters 38 and 39.

Hasn't been many reviews yet, but I have put up 3 chapters in less than 24 hours so I'm still hoping to see a few more lol.