CHAPTER 4

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! Yeah, I'll finish it… geeze I'm slow! I should get it done sometime… before the next major holiday haha, I guess I should pretty well start some Valentines Day fictions soon, then I might get them done within a few weeks of Valentines day…

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"So what movie did you have in mind?" Sara asked Greg who was driving down the streets of Las Vegas towards his apartment.

"It doesn't really matter, you can choose when we get there. I have lots." He smiled.

"I bet." Sara smiled as well, Greg was definitely into the Christmas spirit, so if anyone would have a vast collection of Christmas movies, it would be him, and if anyone could get her into the Christmas spirit and out of her memories, it would be him as well.

"Is everything okay with you Sara?" Greg asked after a moment of silence. He knew something was up because Sara wouldn't usually have given the thought of going to Greg's for a movie a second of thought, little lone a yes! There was something that was bothering her, and if it was anything Greg could help with, he was there.

"Yeah, everything's fine Greg." Sara answered quickly, making it obvious to anyone, especially a CSI that she was lying.

"Okay, just checking because you seemed a bit upset earlier… but never mind." Greg shrugged, not wanting to make Sara feel uncomfortable in any way. Sara didn't say anything. She didn't know whether she should follow her heart, and open up to Greg and let him help her like she knew he would, or if she should just do what she'd always done and kept everything to herself to deal with quietly. Greg pulled up to his apartment and they went inside. Greg took her coat and told her to make herself comfortable in the living room.

"Do you want a beer?" He called from the kitchen.

"Uh, sure." She answered, taking a mental note not to drink too much, because she didn't want to end up either spilling secrets she didn't intend on spilling, or ending up in a rather compromising position.

"Here you go." He smiled, placing a beer on the coffee table in front of where Sara was sitting on the couch. "Do you know what movie you want to watch?" He asked.

"No, you can choose one, it doesn't matter." Sara shrugged, and let herself get lost in her thoughts. She really wanted to tell Greg what was bugging her, she in a way needed to, but she didn't know if he'd like her at all anymore after she did. She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt Greg sit down next to her, not to close to be uncomfortable, but close enough to make the couch dip slightly and bring her out of her thoughts. She tried to focus on the TV but she couldn't. "Greg…" She whispered, hoping he wouldn't care that she was interrupting the movie.

"Yeah Sara?" He answered, turning to face her, hoping she was going to tell him what was bothering her so much.

"I don't want to interrupt the movie but…" She started, then paused, not sure what to say.

"Its fine Sara, I've seen the movie millions of times." Greg smiled encouragingly. The truth was, with Sara on the same couch as him in his apartment, he wasn't concentrating much on the movie anyways.

"Okay. Well, you remember before when you asked if anything was bothering me…"

"Yeah." Greg nodded, hoping she'd tell him because he'd do anything in the world to help her. He reached over and turned the volume on the TV down a bit to show her she had his full attention.

"Well… there is… and I don't know I don't really like talking about it, I'm not sure why, it's really dumb when I think about it…" Sara tried to find a logical way to explain to Greg why she despised Christmas so much… but she wasn't having any luck.

"Sara, you can tell me anything." Greg reassured her with a smile.

"I know… it's just, I never know how to say it. Okay," She took a deep breath before continuing, "See the thing is… when I was little, I didn't have the best childhood. My parents were always fighting, and sometimes I'd get in the middle of it all. At first it was just arguing, yelling, all verbal, but after a while, my parents would beat each other up and we'd be at the hospital a lot… but there was never any help, there was never a way out. The lies kept building and by the time I realized it wasn't normal, I thought I would get in trouble for going along with the lies, so I kept quiet." Sara paused to let a few tears slip down her cheeks which Greg wanted nothing more than to wipe away, but he didn't want to make Sara feel uncomfortable, especially since she was obviously telling him a very big secret that explained most of her life. "Then one day, my Mom figured a way out, unfortunately, the way out led to a life of foster care for me. I was twelve when my mother stabbed my father to death in front of me." Sara sobbed uncontrollably now. She couldn't help it, she needed to let it all out. Greg moved closer and pulled her to him knowing she needed to feel loved. It made him so angry to think that such a beautiful and amazing person such as Sara had to grow up and experience such horrible things at such a young age. It made him sick to think about it, and even sicker when he thought about how Hank especially, and even Grissom added to the pain of it all.

"Sara I'm sorry, I never would have known…" Greg whispered, trying to make her feel better.

"It's okay Greg, it's all over now, I don't know why I bother cry about it… it's all done, there's nothing I can do, there's nothing you can do." Sara shrugged, but couldn't stop crying.

"I can make sure you don't get hurt anymore." Greg whispered. She didn't know exactly what he meant by that, but for some reason, hearing it from Greg made her feel safe and comfortable, more so than she'd felt in a long time. "I can make sure that no one gets to hurt you or uses you like he did." Greg continued. Sara knew he was talking about Hank, which made her want to start sobbing again, but she didn't. Hank was in the past now, and she needed to move on, just like she needed to move on from Grissom… still.

"Thanks." Sara managed to say to Greg through her still steady stream of tears.

"For what Sara? I didn't do anything, I just listened." Greg pointed out.

"Exactly." She smiled. She reached over and grabbed the remote, turning the movie back up to the volume that they could hear what the characters were saying. Within a few minutes, Sara had fallen asleep with her head on Greg's shoulder and as much as Greg didn't want to go to sleep, because he would have much preferred to lay there and admire Sara and how especially beautiful she looked with a tear stained sleep laden face, he fell asleep within a few minutes as well.

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A/N: Okay, so I know, it's a bit … (maybe a bit more than a bit) out of character, but it's just a fluffy little piece of Christmas fun. More to come soon! What are everyone's thoughts?