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)
Thanks to obsessedTWfan, remoob1513, missusmesser and suus for their reviews!
Thanks again to FongSaiYuk319 for beta-reading.
Chapter 7 – Mean to say
Greg was still thinking about what had happened, when he arrived at home. He walked into his bed room directly and fell into his bed. He could not deny a certain elation he was feeling. After all, Sara had kissed him. Voluntary.
Still wondering, but also wallowing in the memory, he fell asleep quickly.
Sara invaded his dreams. He felt her again close to him on the couch in the break room, she was smiling at him. But every time he wanted to get closer to her, she drew back, held him off on a distance.
It was again the ringing of a phone that woke him up. This time it was not his cell phone but the land line. He opened his eyes and groaned. He got up slowly, but when he finally reached the phone, the ringing had already stopped. Greg cursed. It could have been Sara.
Shaking his head, he went back into his bed and it took not long until he was sleeping again, cuddling into his pillow.
Sara had not been able to sleep at all. She pondered about what she had done, what she had probably caused her relationship with Greg.
She could imagine how surprised he most likely had been.
Sara knew that it had been a blunder. It had been a spontaneous outburst of a long night, of a temptation she had felt and some bottled up frustration that had been strengthened by the hit-and-run case. They had found the car and the owner, but he had claimed that it had not been him who had caused the accident, that the car had actually been stolen and had stood in front of his house one night later.
Sure, Sara thought. But she had not been able to find any prints or any DNA, neither inside the car, nor outside.
The owner had stated that he had it let clean inside and outside thoroughly to "get rid of the filth of the thief" as he had verbalized it.
Sara sighed and tried to stop thinking about it.
She returned with her thoughts to Greg. He had not responded to the kiss. Was it because he had been so surprised or because he did not want it? She knew that he had had a crush on her a long time ago, long before she had seen in him what she saw in him now. But she did not know where they stood in the present, though they had worked together a lot during the last year and Sara had enjoyed it thoroughly.
Semi-unconsciously she picked up her phone and dialed Greg's number. She let it ring only a few times before she put it down. She could not do that.
A few seconds later her phone rang. Hoping, assuming it was Greg, she picked it up quickly. "Greg?" she asked breathless.
"No, it's not Greg."
When Sara recognized the voice she blushed deeply, happy that the other person could not see her, and cursed herself for acting without thinking.
"Hodges," she said dryly.
"I don't know what services from Sanders you are waiting for, but-"
"Hodges, please, what do you want?" Sara asked, sighing.
"I wanted to remind you that it's my night off tonight, so if you want your results you have to go to the tech of swing-"
"Yeah, thanks. I'll remember that."
She slammed the phone down and covered her face with her hands.
Acting without thinking. It had been the same in the morning. When she had kissed Greg, she had acted without thinking. If she had acted deliberately, she would not have done it, she would not have kissed him, like she had not done it some hours earlier on the couch in the break room.
Catherine sighed. Again she was on her way to a crime scene that promised to be another killing in the line of serial murders that had kept them busy in the last time. She counted. Thirteen were it already. Thirteen victims and two killers. So much they knew.
It was in the early evening when Catherine took a turn into a busy street and realized relived that she was only about a mile away from her destination.
She had to stop at a traffic light and she watched some people who were walking on the pavement and suddenly she smiled, as she saw Sara walking through a crowd of people. Catherine wondered rather curiously what Sara was doing there, even more so as she looked rather worried and a little nervous. Then Sara entered a building that looked like a café and Catherine could not see her anymore. The lights turned to green and Catherine drove on.
When she arrived at the scene, Nick and Warrick were already there. Still the whole swing shift was working this case, or better, these cases. Of course they still had other cases to work on, but it was tried to shove as much as possible to days or graveyard shift.
Catherine shook her head. They could not go on like this for a very long time. Ecklie got impatient already and when he had found out that all the victims were former detainees or suspects, the case had fallen down from his top priority list, as it did not promise the reputation in his eyes he had thought at first, although Catherine could only shake her head on a priority setting like this.
She got out of the car and approached Nick. "The both of them or only one of them?" she asked, referring to the assassins, of whom they knew that they sometimes killed alone and sometimes together.
"One," Nick answered calmly, used to this question. "A witness said it was a woman, she couldn't remember more."
Catherine nodded. "Thanks, Nicky."
She set to work. It promised to be a long day and she was already looking forward to the conversation with Ecklie she would have to endure.
Greg turned around in his bed abruptly. Then his phone rang again and he opened his eyes. Groaning from the last dream he had had, he got up.
In this dream Sara had been no longer smiling. For a short moment a hurt expression had crossed her face, before it had been replaced by a cold glare. She had turned to go and Greg had tried to get to her, but he had not been able to move. It had been then when he had realized that Sara had not been there anymore and the phone started to ring.
Greg stumbled to his phone and picked it up. "Sanders," he answered it with a tired voice. He thought that before late all people would assume that he never went to bed, if he continued like that.
"Hey, Greg. It's Sara."
Sara. There she was. Greg sighed inwardly. "What's up?"
Greg thought he heard Sara sigh as well. "About this morning…"
Greg took a deep breathe. "Do we have to talk about that on the phone?"
"Uh, if you'd like to meet somewhere…"
Greg liked to and before long they had agreed on meeting two hours later.
She had really preferred to talk about the whole issue on the phone, Sara thought when she entered the café where she and Greg wanted to meet. She would have had her distance and she would not have been forced to look at Greg – and to be watched by Greg - when they were talking.
The café was nothing too cozy, as Sara wanted to keep the talk factually. She had also not dared to meet at Greg's place in fear to be tempted again there.
She sat down on a table next to a window and when the waitress came to take her orders, she simply took an orange juice.
Not long after that Greg arrived as well. He let himself fall on the chair opposite of Sara and looked at her expectantly.
Sara shifted uncomfortably, but was about to start, when her gaze fell on the waitress, who was coming up to them to take Greg's order. After she had left again, Greg said, "Well?"
Sara glanced at him. He still seemed exhausted. "Had a good day?" she asked in a neutral tone. Don't look into his eyes.
Greg shrugged. "Didn't get so much sleep."
Because of me? Sara wondered. "I tried to call you earlier already," she said, keeping her gaze straight ahead, almost past Greg. But it is very nice to look into his eyes.
"You were?" Greg asked in a neutral tone that met hers.
"Yeah," Sara replied. She looked at Greg. "Unfortunately I got a call some seconds later and I thought it was you."
"Uh, and who was it?" Greg wanted to know, slightly smiling.
"Hodges," Sara said through gritted teeth.
Greg chuckled. "What did he want?"
"Reminded me that it's his night off."
Greg laughed. "He called you because of that? There has to be another reason behind that. He probably has a crush on you."
Sara laughed as well.
Greg got somber again. "About what you wanted to talk…," he brought the conversation back to topic.
"Well, I can imagine that you were surprised this morning…," Sara began carefully.
"Oh, yeah," Greg laughed ironically. "Though I shouldn't have been… I mean you and me, we come along quite well and-," he started hopefully, looking at Sara to gauge her feelings.
Sara cut it off. "Yeah, Greg, I'm sorry. I mean it was only…"
"Only what?" Greg asked softly, suppressing his disappointment. "It wasn't like I stood directly in front of you. You came to me, actually, and…" And kissed me madly.
Sara shook her head.
Greg leaned back and rubbed his eyes with his hands.
"Look, Greg. I like you."
Greg said nothing.
"I like to work with you." After some seconds of silence, Sara added, "Not only working with you." She looked downwards. "I can't promise you anything…," she looked up to Greg, talking very quietly now, "…you give me the feeling that I can trust you… and…I can't say that about a lot of guys."
Catherine was cursing silently. Nick watched her and finally said, "Calm down, Catherine. Sooner or later we'll get them."
Catherine shook her head angrily. "Sooner or later. That's not soon enough. What am I going to tell Ecklie? The whole swing shift resources have gone to this case in the last time and the other shifts had to cover for us. And we're as far as at the beginning," she snarled.
Warrick sat back on the couch in the break room before he said, "It's not only you, Cath. You know we all are working hard."
Catherine nodded slowly, but said nothing. Warrick stood up from the couch and strode to the door. "I'm off to Trace. Maybe, this time…," he said calmly and left.
Nick and Catherine sat in silence until it was broken by Nick. "You know, I have the feeling to have lost contact to graveyard. I mean, we've worked together for a long time and… I don't know what's going on anymore…"
"Who is it?" Catherine asked rather tiredly. "Grissom? I don't think so. So Greg? Or Sara?"
When Nick didn't answer, she continued, "So, what's up with Sara?"
Nick smiled shortly about Catherine's right guess. "I don't know. That's the problem. Do you know?"
Catherine snorted briefly. "I don't claim to know what's going on in Sara Sidle's mind."
Nick shook his head. "Don't be mean, Cath," he said, though he had to chuckle shortly.
"Nah, I think she's fine, Nicky. By the way I saw her today. She seemed rather nervous, maybe on her way to a date, she was entering a café. You see: she's probably alright."
Nick frowned. "When did you see her?" he asked curiously.
"On my way to the scene," Catherine replied, shrugging.
At this moment, Warrick returned and both Nick and Catherine could see by his expression that his visit of the trace lab had not been a success.
TBC
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