CHANGE THE WORLD
Rating: T
Summary: She could trust him. Oneshot songfic. Sara/Greg
Disclaimer: If you expected something sarcastic and witty -- I'm about to let you down ;; I don't own any of this stuff, and please, don't sue me, since all I have to my name is a plastic duck on my printer. Wait. I was just sarcastic and witty. Darn. I don't own the song, either...but it's an awesome one, I must say. I cropped the lyrics a bit, though.
Setting: Between seasons five and six.
If I could reach the stars I'd pull one down for you,
Shine it on my heart so you could see the truth.
Sara had done it again.
Mind, she didn't realize she had done it. He had said something, and she had laughed. That was what gave him that funny feeling in his stomach, like it was trying to escape and in the process of doing so fell to his feet. Which, he felt, wasn't quite right, since normally only awkward, big-footed, romantically-challenged teenagers get that kind of feeling.
He could be awkward, hell yes. Big-footed? Probably at one point and time. Romatically-challenged? That either fit him to a tee or was completely wrong. He just hadn't decided which just yet. He also hadn't decided which of all the possible reactions she'd have if he were to ask her out. Again.
Ten minutes later, he found himself in the break room, flicking rancid, white mac and cheese off of a plastic spoon at the trash bin, while Nick poured over a driver's license photo.
"Man, I'm telling you, I've seen his face somewhere."
"And, I'm telling youI, I can't help you."
She backed in to the room, a stack of files hiding her face, staggered across the room and dumped the leaning pile of files on the table, where the scattered onto Nick's things.
"Thanks," he said sarcastically, not looking up from the picture.
She was breathing a bit heavily. "No problem." Walking over and bending down in front of the fridge, she rooted around for a moment and levelled herself again. "Anyone seen the quark spätzle that was in the fridge?"
He looked down into the container he was holding at lowered his mouth as if to say something, but Nick cut him off a bit by coughing obviously and tilting his head.
"...I thought it was mac and cheese."
"Well, yeah, that's what it's kind of like. But it's made with quark, so it smells weird. So have you seen it?"
Nick pointed at the trash bin, and she followed his gaze.
"Someone owes me lunch."
This love I have inside is everything it seems,
But for now I find it's only in my dreams.
"Nice work on that case."
He jumped a bit at the sound of Sara's voice, and slowly turned, bringing a hand to the back of his neck.
"Err...thanks," He tried a couple of times to set his soda on the counter, and kept missing. Finally, she took it from his hand and put it there for him. He swallowed and said, simply, "I just started break."
"Right on. I'm taking mine in five minutes."
"D'you want to go somewhere?"
She shrugged. "Actually, Grissom and I were going to get Thai. I've been craving mee krob for weeks."
"Aren't you an ethic vegetarian?"
"Yeah, well, if you ask the lady that works there to get rid of that fish sauce they use in just about everything, it's pretty good." She shrugged, and he nodded.
"Maybe Grissom will remember you're vegetarian some day."
"Right." She rolled her eyes and smiled a bit, turning to leave.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
He grabbed his soda can, and, despite the fact it was still half full, crushed it and threw it at the trash bin as he plopped himself of the couch.
I can change the world,
I would be the sunlight in your universe,
You would think my love was really something good,
If I could change the world.
Sara clocked in late, for the first time in weeks. It was one of those days where a combination of PMS, stress and lack of sleep made her life, at least for now, a constant struggle to make sure her mind overrode her body's basic desire to choke the living crap out of some asshole, namely Ecklie, who desperately needed it.
At least for now.
"Yeah, there's a memo for you, Miss Sidle."
She found a folded post-it note on top of her case files. Dragging them to the unoccupied layout room, she placed the files on a chair by the door and carefully removed the note, unfolding it.
IOU: lunch
She smiled a bit, and pulled out a pen.
If I could be king,
Even for a day,
I'd take you as my queen;
I'd have it no other way.
Greg held on to the armrests of his chair and turned his torso, trying to crack his back. It had been a long shift. He glanced up at the clock; 10:00. AM.
He had worked overtime. Again.
Stumbling out the door, he collided unceremoniously with a jittery lab tech, who squealed as she dropped a few of papers on the floor. He sighed and bent over to help her pick them up, but she had already gathered them and looked up at him as if he were going to bite her head off. He recognized her, indirectly. She worked grave, too...so he wasn't the only one on overtime.
"You're here...late," Was all he could say. The line between his brain and his mouth wasn't functioning properly. Probably asleep with the other 95 of his body.
"We're not the only ones." Before he could question what she meant, she had scurried off, like a mouse under the eye of a cat. He yawned and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, then continued to the locker room. There was virtually no silver lining to working overtime.
What he saw in the next room confirmed that to all extents.
Sara had her head down, eyes closed; Grissom brushed a stray bit of hair back from her face and kissed her on the forehead.
Greg quickly reconsidered his decision to enter the office, and instead backed away, walking quickly to the locker room. He opened his locker swiftly, meaning to grab his coat, as a piece of paper fell out on to the floor. He looked at it for a moment, then picked it up from the floor, grabbed his coat and shoved the note in his pocket and slammed his locker door shut, nearly running from the lab.
A world where Sara didn't love Grissom would be about-face.
And our love will rule,
In this kingdom we have made...
Till then I'd be a fool,
Wishing for the day...
Tequila didn't help much.
Actually, waking up with an excruciating hangover helped even less. Greg wasn't sure whether or not he was happy that it was his night off.
But all that though occured in the sweet two seconds between the initial cell phone ring that woke him up and the next, which seemed to rattle his brain and make it feel like someone stuck needles in his ears. He grasped for his cell phone, and tried to look at the display. Not a good move. The blue light made his eyes feel like they were burning out of their sockets. Instead, he flipped it open lazily and pressed it against his ear.
"...y'lo?" Nick. Grissom. Catherine. Warrick. Ecklie, for God's sake. Just anyone but her.
"Hey, Greg?" Damn. And since when was the volume on his phone up so loud? He fumbled at the volume control, but found it was actually as low as it could go. "Did I wake you up?"
Some part of his brain seemed to tune a bit. "I guess y'could say that."
"Okay. Well, anyways, Grissom says he wants you here, pronto. We have some weird double floater incident. And that doesn't happen very much."
Greg tried not to gag at the thought of a stinking, decomposing and completely waterlogged body. "Yeah. I'll be in...sometime."
"Within the next five hours, if you will."
"Yeah, sure."
"Bye."
Now he was faced with two very frightening concepts: the first being getting a clean shirt on the right way, the second having to face her.
That I can change the world,
I would be the sunlight in your universe.
The body itself wasn't that bad, he found. It was the fact that she was on the same case, and no matter what way you stacked it, he had to talk to her.
A very long, stink-ridden shift later, he sat on the bench of the locker room and stared blankly at a picture taken at Christmas the previous year, of the whole group of them - Sara, Grissom, then Sofia, Catherine, Warrick, Nick and him, all crammed into a booth at a local restaurant.
And they were all smiling. A cough from a figure in the threshold of the door alerted him of her presence, and he heaved his shoulders, making to stand up.
"What do you want?" She tried to look at him, but he turned his head. She sighed, and he started towards the door. Sara grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him so he was facing her and turned his face with her hand to look at her, and then leaned in...
You would think my love was really something good.
He didn't realize her lips were on his until he opened his eyes. She pulled back slowly, opening her eyes. Greg blinked in confusion, and Sara laughed.
"Sit down," She dragged him over to the bench, where he sat, bewildered. "Why do you look so surprised?"
"Wh...where did thatI come from!"
Sara rolled her eyes. "I guess I need to explain the note."
Greg was lost. What note?
She heaved a sigh and shrugged her shoulders a bit. "You do realize why I came to Las Vegas, right?" Greg nodded, and she laughed. "The rumor mill was probably dwelling on that for a while. I was infatuated, and there wasn't much I could do about it. He was smart. But honest to God, Greg, I doubt he's understood human emotion for a second of his life."
Apparantly, Greg's growing confusion was showing on his face.
"Then came the whole Hank thing. Honestly? That was just my way of showing Grissom that I wasn't a complete geeky, awkward...bitch. I figured he'd see that I could maintain a relationship with someone who often just showed up where I work, and still stay focused, and eventually I'd break it off and I could just have my way with Grissom. But then he found out too much."
Whatever puzzlement originally showed on Greg's face was probably no match to what it was now, and Sara just looked at him and laughed.
"That week of leave I had, for telling off Ecklie and Catherine? It wasn't completely pointless. You asked me to talk to you then, I didn't feel like it. So I ended up spilling the entire situation to Grissom, and it just made whatever love he had for me become paternal. All the while, I had just ignored you. And you were willing to listen. And I didn't realize until lately that I can trust you."
Okay, so he still didn't quite get it.
"Then when I got your note a couple of days ago, I think that's when it all completely sunk in. Okay, bad time - I can trust you because you flicked my mac and cheese into the trash and admitted to it - but I guess it just got to me that you have never, ever lied to me or failed to keep a promise for me, Greg. And a lot of people have. A lot a lot. So I thought back to something I said to you that I never really did, and there it was. But before I made another promise that I didn't want to keep - so I went to Grissom, and made sure. I just told him everything that I ever thought about him, and he told me he'd always love me like a daughter."
Evidently, some part of Greg's brain had proverbially detached itself from another part, and suddenly, at that second, they seemed to come back together, and he could talk again.
"Sara?"
"Mhm?"
"I still haven't read the note."
She smiled and shook her head, standing up. He looked up to meet her eyes, and she leaned over so close to his ear that it gave him shivers.
"It might just change your perspective." At that, she kissed him gently on the cheek and left the locker room as if nothing had happened. He reached into his pocket, and found the note that fell out of his locker. Slowly he opened it and read what was unmistakeably in Sara's handwriting.
IOU: a kiss
I just need to get something off my chest, first.
Greg smiled. His universe had just done a u-turn.
If I could change the world.
Author's Note: Awr, fluffy. Anyways, I got the entire idea while, of course, listening to Eric Clapton ;D I figured there were some behaviorial bits and pieces of the show that really haven't been explained, so here's my take on them. If anyone was curious, the "kiss" that Sara was referring to is from Organ Grinder, but Greg shied out. Reviews are highly, highly appreciated, since I vowed not to publish this corny sap, but ended up doing it anyways.