Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of its characters.
Summary: While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,
everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)
A/N: Thanks for the reviews!
remoob1513:
Yeah, the noticing is coming quite slowly, actually I didn't want to make it too obvious (ah, I don't have a nice saying in English for what I mean, but I'd say something about "waving with the whole fence" in my language).
obsessedTWfan:
I'm nice and a little bit already comes in this chapter. Actually I decided to change the genre from Drama/Angst to Humor/Angst (weird combo, uh?), as it's playing out more in this direction.
But angst is coming ahead in the next chapter, muhaha (lol, I have this from chrissy0. I recommend her Sandle stories "A Balancing Act" and "When the Rain Comes").
And thanks again to FongSaiYuk319 for beta-reading and your help!
Chapter 5 – Move closer
It was about ten hours later; already well into the morning, when Greg came up to Sara who waited outside of the DNA lab.
"It's pointless, you know," he stated, earning a not too friendly glance. "As former lab tech I can tell you that it's not possible to do a DNA comparison in a couple of hours."
Sara bit on her lip. "I know."
"Then why are you waiting here? Go home and sleep," Greg said seriously, "you look tired, exhausted actually."
Sara grimaced. "Thanks, Greg, that's what a woman wants to hear," she said ironically. "And," she added, "I am not tired."
Greg laughed and Sara looked at the floor and smiled widely.
"Did I miss something?" they heard Grissom's voice behind them.
Sara turned around, straightening her expression. "No, I'm just waiting for DNA results."
At this moment Mia came out of the DNA lab. "Get a life. The results won't be ready until tonight," she declared, said goodbye to her co-workers, and walked away.
Sara sighed resigned. "Okay, okay, I'm already leaving." She walked past Grissom and then she turned around again, looking at Grissom and Greg. "Happy?"
Greg shrugged and Sara left.
Grissom sent a questioning look at Greg, who just shrugged again and went away.
When he entered the locker room to get his things, Sara was still there.
"Hey, you're up for breakfast?" she asked lightly.
Greg was up for it, of course, but as he did not want to appear to enthusiastic, he just answered, "Uh… if you'd like to…"
Sara shut her locker a little too hard and Greg winced.
"We don't have to, you know," she said sharply, hurrying out of the room without another word. Greg ran after her and when he caught up to her he grabbed her arm from behind. "Wait, I didn't mean - ."
Sara turned around quickly, her expression hardened, "Don't touch - ," she hissed, but stopped in mid sentence as Greg had already drawn back.
Sara frowned and Greg knew that she was considering whether to yell or laugh at him.
"Let's have breakfast, okay?" Greg suggested, unsure, nevertheless smiling.
Now Sara was laughing. Greg wondered what she found so funny, but as he loved her laugh, and, as he thought that she did not laugh enough at all, he did not ask, but just grinned.
"Yeah," Sara finally agreed, "Get your things and we'll meet outside."
Greg walked back to the locker room, looking forward optimistically to their breakfast together. He grabbed his things and then hurried to sign out to not keep Sara waiting too long.
But as he stepped outside in the twilight as the sun was just rising on a cloudy sky, he could not see Sara anywhere. He stopped and looked around, confused. He wondered if she had changed her mind about having breakfast together, but he could not think of anything that might have caused her to do so.
Then he saw a glimpse of her brown hair behind a big car that was standing a little distance down the street. He walked over in her direction. "You're too tall to hide from me," he called teasingly.
Sara came around the car, glancing shortly back into the direction of the lab. "I didn't hide from you," she said, "I hid from Hodges."
Greg grinned widely, apparently enjoying himself.
"Don't laugh," Sara said in a threatening voice, but smiling, "this little sticking-his-nose-in-other-people-business just came out and I wasn't in the mood for questions 'Who are you waiting for?' and stuff."
Greg was laughing and Sara pulled him impatiently back into the direction of the lab. When they reached her car, Greg opened his mouth as if to say something, but Sara cut him off immediately. "Don't get even started. It's my car."
About two hours later Sara was parking her car near to Greg's apartment. Greg got out, but stuck his head through the door on the passenger's side again. "You wanna come up?" he asked cautiously. "I could make some lunch."
Sara shook her head, smiling. "Greg, first: we just had breakfast, second: We both need some sleep, I think."
Setting on a serious expression, Greg teased, "I thought you weren't tired."
Sara was looking for a moment as if she was searching for something she could throw at him, but then she got out of the car and slammed the door shut. Greg did the same on the other side of the car and walked around it towards Sara.
They went into his apartment and seated down comfortably in the living room. They chatted and Greg enjoyed the fact that he could make Sara laugh without the necessity of exploding toilets.
While at the beginning she had sat down on the couch, Sara was now more and more lying down on her side, yawning heavily.
Greg went into the kitchen to prepare some lunch, but when he came back to the living room, he found Sara sleeping soundly on the couch. He walked into his bedroom and got a blanket and covered her quietly. He decided to take a nap himself, walked back into the bed room and made himself comfortable on his bed.
It was a slam followed by loud cursing that woke him up. He opened his eyes and the cursing stopped. Greg wondered if he had dreamt the sounds, but then he heard a groan coming out of the living room.
He jumped out of the bed, still wearing the clothes he had worn in the morning, and hurried into the other room.
Sara was sitting on the couch, examining her left foot.
"What happened?" Greg asked worried, approaching her and looking at her foot.
Sara looked up at him annoyed. "I collided with your table." She pointed at the small table that was standing only few inches away from the couch.
The emphasis that she made on "your" made Greg worry she would blame him, but Sara continued, "I'm not used to a table standing next to my bed."
Greg smiled weakly. "Well, it's not exactly your bed," he said, indicating the couch, "but we can change that."
Sara sent him a dark look, "Sure, Sanders." She got up and walked slightly humbling to the wardrobe on the other side of the room where she had laid down her purse.
"Is your foot okay?" Greg asked concerned, but Sara only mumbled "Yeah."
She crammed in her purse and walked towards the entrance door.
"Where are you going?" Greg had followed her to the door.
Sara turned around. "Home," she stated rather sharply. But then her expression softened. "Greg, I'm really thankful for everything, but I have to go home. I have to change at least my clothes before work tonight."
Greg shrugged. "I thought we could grab lunch later and then heading to the lab. By the way: my car is still there."
Sara bit on her lip. "Greg, I'm going to stink...," she argued.
Greg grinned from one ear to the other. "I don't mind, you know."
Sara punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"I'll go home now," she said decisively. "No discussions," she added sharply, when Greg wanted to argue again. "I'll pick you up in two hours."
It was about half an hour before midnight when Sara parked her car near to the lab, but not too near, at least not directly in front of the entrance.
"Get out," she said to Greg, "we'll meet at the pre-shift meeting."
Greg got out of the car, obviously enjoying himself. He stuck his head again through the door on the passenger's side and asked grinning, "Why are we doing this again?"
"I don't want any gossip going around in the lab," Sara stated sharply and waved him to go.
Greg shut the door of the car and walked into the direction of the lab, shortly looking back at Sara, grinning. Sara laid her head on the steering wheel, sighing resigned.
Greg entered the lab and headed towards the locker room, meeting Nick on the way.
"Hey, you're grinning so widely. Something good happened?" the Texan asked him.
Greg had not realized that he still wore the expression and only managed to get out, "Uh, yeah."
Nick patted him on the shoulder. "Good for you," he said and added seriously, "We're not so lucky. There were two other shootings today. I do not really count anymore, how many it were until now. And we're not a single step further." He sighed.
At this moment Sara was coming along the hallway, greeting them both only shortly and glancing at Greg meaningful before she passed the both men.
"What's up with her?" Nick asked in a slightly worried voice.
Greg shrugged.
Nick looked at him intensively. "Hey, if you're as lucky with the girls as I can judge from your good mood today, you can also look after Sara a little. Okay? Do it for me."
Greg nodded. "Sure."
Sara was just walking past Catherine's office when the owner of it called her. "Hey, Sara, would you mind coming in for a moment?"
Sara wondered what Catherine wanted from her, but stepped into the office.
"I tried to call you several times today. Weren't you at home?"
Sara hesitated. "I was out," she said finally.
Catherine lifted her eyebrows. "You were out?"
Sara frowned. "You're not the only one who…," she began, but the she stopped, deciding it was pointless and childish.
"Okay, why did you want to call me?" she asked soothingly.
"I just wanted to know something about the Mitchell case you had two months ago."
Sara nodded. "Shoot."
Some minutes later Sara closed the door behind her, Grissom, Sofia and Greg already waiting for her. Without much prologue, Grissom started the pre-shift meeting.
"Sara, you'll work a hit-and-run that just came in," he said, looking at her and handing her a piece of paper.
Sara did not take it. "Gil, we have a lead in the case -," she began, but Grissom said calmly, "Sara, this case won't run away, while we can't close the street where the hit-and-run happened for the whole night."
"But, you know that every minute can count, if –," Sara made another try.
Grissom shook his head. "We had this discussion often enough."
"Can't Sofia-"
"Sofia and Greg will work a double homicide," Grissom said decisively and handed Sofia another piece of paper.
Sara ripped the piece of paper, which Grissom had tried to give her some moments earlier, out of his hands and left the room quickly without another word.
She hurried along the hallway, knowing that she had behaved unreasonable, but she badly wanted to solve the case with the victim that was found in the alley way. She told herself to act professional, even if it was not easy.
Sara drove to the scene of the hit-and-run and an officer filled her in. She worked the scene quickly, but careful, and talked finally to the coroner, who had taken care of the body of a young boy. She sighed. There were too many victims, their work never ended.
When she had finished, she returned to the lab, dropped the evidence bags she had filled on the scene and headed then to the DNA lab where Mia was already waiting for her.
"I expected you earlier," the lab tech greeted her.
"It wasn't my idea," Sara said simply.
Mia went to business. "The DNA you brought yesterday was a match to the victim," she stated, handing Sara a paper.
Sara took it, looked over it briefly and turned to go, but turned around again shortly, "Thanks."
"You're welcome," Mia replied politely.
Sara searched for Greg shortly, but as he was probably still out with Sofia on their crime scene, she got the case file of the alley way case and sat down in a silent room of the lab, spreading the photos, which had been taken of the scene, on the table.
She looked at a picture that she had taken the last night. It showed the blood on the wall. How had it gotten there? It was in a height of about nine feet. As the victim had not been killed on the scene the blood could not be splatters from the killing itself. Then how in any way had it gotten there?
Sara looked at all the items she had gathered from the scene and at the photos again, and an idea dawned upon her.
TBC