Through the night

Summary: They ran, but they were not fast enough, as the rest of their team has to find out. Angst. SaraGreg. Sequel to Unforeseen and Unnoticed.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

Rating: T

A/N: Thanks to Juliette7179, roxxi, spikes-storm, Jessica Summers, remoob1513, loose-canon-with-a-gun, thatTaylorgirl, Emmithar, angw and Sara Sidle 87 for your reviews.

Chapter 4: The longest night

Greg hurried after Sara as fast as he could, hoping not to stumble in the darkness, hoping not to be seen, hoping that both of them ran fast enough.

Greg ran, but he did not really see where he was going. He just followed Sara.

Then he saw the shine of a light resting for a split second on them. Sara had obviously seen it as well, as she changed the direction. She continued running and Greg wondered how long they would hold out, when the light was resting on them again.

Greg heard a shot behind him and saw Sara falling.

He cried out and tried to stop, but stumbled over Sara and fell, too, when he heard a second shot. He crashed on the ground hard and pain shot through him.

He lay there dazed for some seconds, then he tried to stand up, but felt dizzily.

"Sara, we have to go," he mumbled, fearing the person who had shot would come up to them to finish what they had started.

His right leg was paining intensely and he sat down on the ground again. He dragged himself towards Sara, barely able to see her. Only then he realized that the light was gone, that whoever had shot was gone, hopefully gone.

Sara had not answered and Greg felt cold. When he reached her, he touched her carefully. "Sara, answer me, please."

Sara stirred. "Greg," she said, "Where are they?" she asked fearfully, as if expecting the men who had hunted them coming up behind Greg.

"They're gone," Greg answered, hoping it was true.

He stroke down her side and stopped when Sara winced, the same moment when his hand met a heavily bleeding wound on her waist.

"Do we have something to bandage this?" he asked.

Sara shook her head.

"We have to call for help," Greg said.

"Where's this damn back-up?" Sara wondered aloud without replying to Greg.

"Sara, we have to-," Greg started again, but Sara yelled, "I know Greg, damn it. I lost my cell phone. You can search the whole wood if you want to. Tell me when you find it."

Greg did not answer, knowing that it was stress, fear and pain that caused her to snap at him in this way.

He had left his own phone in his kit, he thought guiltily. Now he would have to find a way out for them.

"Can you walk?" he asked Sara, knowing that he probably would not be able to, as he thought that his leg had broken when he had fallen.

"I can try," Sara answered, pressing her hand on her side. She stood up and reeled forwards. After a few steps she stopped and turned around to Greg. She could not see him and neither could he see her. "Do you come?"

"Yeah," Greg lied. He crabbed some paces towards her, but did not dare to stand up again. He heard Sara walking away, probably thinking he was behind her. Some seconds later he could not hear her anymore. He crabbed some more paces, but stopped then.

It was pointless. He had to wait for Sara to bring help. He hoped that she was not too severely injured to get out of the woods and find somebody to help them.

He leaned against a tree and laid his injured leg as comfortable as possible, trying to find the position in that it hurt least.

Then he heard something he did not want to hear already. "Greg," called Sara quietly.

Greg looked into the direction the voice was coming from. "Sara, what are you doing here?"

"I can't walk anymore and I feel so cold and…"

Greg could hear that she was crying.

Suddenly she was at his side. Greg embraced her and felt that she was shaking heavily. She had probably lost a large amount of blood. He feared that she would not hold out very much longer.

He tried to stand up again. He had to get the both of them out of here. A new wave of dizziness rolled over him and he cried out when pain shot again through his leg. It was so severe that he felt faint.

He lied down on the ground, Sara next to him, now only hoping for someone to find them, but fearing in the last moments before all got black, that it would be the wrong persons, those who had shot.

Catherine kneeled down and touched Sara softly. She felt so cold.

Trembling slightly in fear on what she might find or not find, Catherine turned to Greg and searched for a pulse. She found it, deeply relieved.

"Damn, Greg. You gave me such a fright," she whispered. He did not feel as cold as Sara, and Catherine did not see any external wounds either, but his right leg seemed to lie in an odd angle and he was deathly pale.

She turned around to talk to Grissom, only to realize that he was gone. "Where's he gone?" she asked the two people that stood next to her.

"Get the paramedics," the officer who was in charge answered.

Catherine turned back to Greg and Sara and saw that Greg had opened his eyes and looked at her, but his gaze seemed unfocused.

He turned his head to Sara. He touched her cheek and mumbled something.

"What do you want to say, Greg?" Catherine asked, "Can you sit up?"

Greg shook his head.

"She's alive, Greg," Catherine told him softly.

At this moment several paramedics were hurrying up to them. Catherine stepped back to make room for them. She turned to the man who had stopped next to her and saw Grissom's determination to find out what had happened.

Ecklie swung his swivel chair to turn to Grissom. "Tell me what happened."

Grissom leaned back in his chair, preparing himself for a longer stay.

"The initial homicide was a murder after a disagreement between bank robbers. When Sara and Greg were processing the scene the killer returned with several accomplices. They shot down the whole scene, killing two officers and injuring two severely."

"Sara and Greg fled and hid in the woods, waiting for back-up, but before it arrived two of the attackers went to search for them, while their accomplices searched the house for a large amount of money that was obviously hidden there. That was the reason they had come back, they wanted to find it before we did," Grissom explained.

Ecklie nodded. "And Sanders and Sidle?"

"They fled deeper into the woods."

"Go on."

"They were shot at. Sara was hit and fell to the ground. Greg fell over her, but he was not hit. He broke his leg though, bruised his rips and has a minor concussion."

"Would it have been possible for them to avoid what happened? Calling for back-up earlier -"

In an unusual outburst of emotion, Grissom slammed his flat hands on the desk in front of him.

"Damn it, Conrad. Why are you always trying to make somebody responsible? Sara and Greg have done nothing, I repeat: nothing wrong. They did the only thing they could do in a situation hopefully none of us will ever be in."

Ecklie folded his hands, but did not reply to Grissom's outburst, instead he asked,

"What about the assailants?"

"Fled."

After some seconds of silence, Ecklie asked, "How are they?"

"They'll be fine," Grissom answered briefly.

Greg hopped after Sara into her apartment and shut the door.

Sara raised her eyebrows. "You know, you could use the crutches instead of hopping on one leg."

Greg shrugged. "It's more fun this way," he said and laid down the crutches next to the door and skipped to the couch.

Sara shook her head. "I have to remember that you hit your head. Otherwise I'd think this is your normal behavior."

She sat down on the couch next to him.

"How are you?" Greg asked.

Sara smiled weakly. "Well, I don't exactly feel on top of the world and I'm still a little sore, but apart from that, fine, really." She looked down on her right side. "It will take some time though, until I'll sleep on this side again."

Greg leaned forward and let his hand hover over the so vulnerable skin. Then he kissed Sara gently until she deepened the kiss. Greg laid his hands around her back and embraced her. He opened his eyes and saw that Sara's eyes were wet.

He backed away, worried. "What's wrong?"

Sara shook her head, smiling. "Nothing, I'm just glad." Greg kissed her again.

"Are you still up for the trip to your family?" Sara asked. "I mean, Grissom has declared quite convincingly that he won't let us enter the lab for another two weeks." She grimaced.

"Yeah, of course I am, if you feel well enough…"

"I do, Greg." She grinned. "And I will drive the whole way to California, as you obviously can't." She looked at his plastered leg meaningfully.

Greg looked sulky. "Damn," he exclaimed and Sara laughed.

The end

A/N2: Yep, this is already the end of this story. This story here was kinda an occupational accident. (Poor Greg and Sara.) In a new story will follow what I actually had planned to write: Greg and Sara's trip to Greg's family. :D

I don't know at all though, when this will be up, as I try to do some writing sometime between Uni, work and all the other stuff. :-)