Finally, I got enough for a chapter. Maybe some of this stuff is a bit out of character for Sara, but I think around Greg she'd be a bit different than she usually is...you know, one personality rubbing off on another person. See what you think.
"Hey you!" She tapped the still sleeping Greg on the shoulder. "Wake up…I've got coffee." She finally found something that worked. He quickly sat up, quick enough that he nearly hit her head with his own on the way up. How was he supposed to know she would be hovering watching him sleep.
She actually had found it rather amusing…entertaining even. Soon after she had gotten up earlier that morning he began rambling on about his adventures at space camp once again, though this time, he was very much a sleep. Then she wondered what all she could possibly do without waking him. First she started talking to him about this space camp he must have enjoyed immensely as a child. He didn't wake up, but she did learn a bit about fellow space cadet Sally andhow her jumpsuit matched her bright blue eyes. She started touching his face, but he must have assumed she was not but a fly because he simply shooed her hand away every time she poked his nose. Next she went for the feet, it made him twitch sure enough and apparently they were ticklish, but even that was ineffective. It was then when she got bored with it all and went to retrieve some coffee for the two of them.
"I know it's not the good stuff, but it's got plenty of caffeine."
"Thanks." He took a sip and laughed. "Hey, it's not half bad."
"Good because our flight leaves in two hours."
"Well, at least we don't have far to go." He paused for a second to pick up the bag of necessities the woman at the desk had so nicely donated to them. "Oh no…I can't do my hair in a bathroom sink with only a bar of soap!"
"Don't worry, as soon as we check in at the hotel in DC you can make yourself presentable." She reached over and messed up is hair more so than a whole night of sleeping had managed to do. "But in all honesty…you just woke up and you look just fine."
"You really think so?" He seemed almost shocked about her complement. She couldn't quite tell by the sound of her voice, but it sounded like a honest question, like he really wanted to know if she thought that, and not just something to draw attention to the fact she actually gave him some kind of a complement in the first place.
Considering that, she answered it rather than leave it rhetorical. "Yes Greg…now go." She pointed across the way to the men's room as she stood and went through the doorway of her own.
So far they had some how killed and hour of the two they had left before their airplane would leave with or without them. Most of that time, or so it seemed to Sara, she had been waiting outside the bathroom door for Greg to come out, though in actuality he took only a few minutes more than herself. They wandered throughout the hub of the terminals, where those master departure boards glowed for the world to see, though on this day there were many more green "on time" messages opposed from the day earlier when more than half were in the red. In that area there were various shops and restaurants. It was there where Sara eyed a small book store, but before she could drag him inside, Greg convinced her that buying yet another mystery novel to get herself so absorbed in that she couldn't stop reading wouldn't be the best idea. First she already had a similar one stashed away in her bag, and frankly, though it might make the flight go faster for her, he found it not so interesting to watch someone else reading. The point was for them to be miserable together, no one engrossed in a good novel and the other watching the cloud pass by outside the window.
"Did I ever tell you how much I hate airplanes?"
"Actually…yes, Sara. You did." It was déjà vu all over again, right down to her nervous behavior, the gripping of the arm rest and ever the biting of her fingernails. In a sense, he found it funny, but he dared not to laugh.
"Sorry…" She said with a nervous smile and sits back in her seat and keeps her eyes facing forward toward the thin blonde flight attendant pointing out the emergency exits.
"And if necessary, your seat can be used as floatation device." The woman informed the rest of the passengers in an ironic cheerful voice. It was hard to translate what she said. She had most likely memorized the whole speech so well by repeating it for every flight she worked. She could run off the words a mile a minute. But of course, all that couldn't stop Greg from quietly mimicking her actions.
"Really…what are the chances of us having to remember any of this. How often do planes really crash anyway?" Greg asked curiously.
"Don't you say that!" She ordered.
"Why not?"
"Because… you'll jinx the whole thing." She whispered to him as not to disturb anyone from absorbing the important lifesaving information being poured into the cabin. "You know in movies…or on tv, whenever anyone says 'oh, this plane will never crash,' that's exactly what happens."
"I can't think of any movies like that…can you?"
"Well…" She didn't like the idea of being defeated. "I can't think of one of hand…but I know there are some."
"Okay then, you're right." He gave up on the argument, because he knew Sara way too well. She wasn't exactly the type to just give up when she knew she was right and no one else did. "I won't say anything more about the you know what going you know where." He mimed down toward the ground soon to be far beneath them.
"Thank you." She said proudly, but the conversation was cut short by the airplane finally taxiing down the runway, getting faster and faster until it lifted up off the ground. And for once, the armrest was free to breathe rather than choked by Sara's tight tense hold.
Despite Greg's objections, Sara took out her book and began to read. In turn he brought out his mp3 player, a Christmas present to himself, to occupy his time. She tried to concentrate on the black type words on the page in front of her, but for some reason she couldn't. Greg sitting right beside her was just too distracting. She could swear that he would go deaf sometime in the near future because although he had a pair of headphones covering his ears, she still could hear not only the music, but most of the words that came out of, whom she assumed was, Paul McCartney's mouth.
"Greg…" She said it too softly, so he could hear her. "Greg!" She said louder and pulled one ear piece out so he could hear something.
"What!" He said merely out of surprise.
"I get it Greg…" She set the book down. "The silent treatment…I mean, sorry if my reading is getting in the way of your fun, but it a really good book and I'm almost done." She was talking to him, but he didn't seem to be listening to a word she said. "Greg?" She noticed the little girl in the seat in front of them. She was turned around looking at them. It wasn't that Greg was ignoring her once again, he was too busy with a game of peek a boo between himself and the little blonde four year old. She would lean towards one side of the seat and he would follow. Every once in a while he'd show her a goofy face and she would giggle.
He was good with kids, unlike herself, though it made so much sense. She had never been a normal kid herself and she had to grow upso fast. Greg on the other hand, he still hadn't grown up and she highly doubted if he would anytime soon. But that was one thing she liked about him. Of course she wasn't always the biggest fan of his goofy antics, but since working with him it had kind of rubbed of on herself. It was nice to have work not seem so serious any more.
"Hey, Greg…" Sara laughed as he turned back to her. "Haven't you heard if you do that too much it'll stay that way?"
"What, did you learn from first hand experience?" He said, not seriously of course. Sara had the look upon her face thathe would probably say was his second favorite, the first, her crooked smile. This particular one came out whenever she found something funny but wanted so badly not to let herself laugh. Her face would scrunch all up, but then the smile would force itself through. It never seemed to keep herself from grinning, and it always made Greg smile twice as big as she was at the time. "But you know…" His voice switched to one which sounded more sincere. "That look…" He pointed to the smile still about her lips. "I wouldn't mind if that froze that way."
"Really?" She had always hated her smile. Ever since she had been a little kid she had never wanted to smile because of that awful gap between her two front pearly whites. But Greg saw it as natural beauty, not a flaw as she did.
"Would I lie to you?" When she thought about it…no, she couldn't think of him ever doing such a thing. He was one of those guys who would hand you all the words you ever wanted to hear, but unlike a lot of those guys,he actually meant every last one of them.
Just then the stewardess, flight attendant as Sara claimed was the politically correct term, went by offering drinks to those coach passengers. "Ooh peanuts!"
"What?" It was kind of a random thing to spout out at that moment, at least she thought.
"I love airplane peanuts…"
"What's the difference between normal peanuts and airplane peanuts?"
"I don't know…but one of them you get to eat at thirty thousand feet in the air and the other you can only eat with your feet on the ground."
"Eating peanuts on land…how boring." She rolled her eyes and just went along with it.
"Why can't the department ever splurge for coach?"
"What…better peanuts?"
"Hey! How did you know?"
He received his beloved peanuts, actually he had two packages, as Sara didn't want her own so she gratefully handed them off to one whom she knew would appreciate them. He would be occupied for a while, she could tell, so she nonchalantly reached down and grabbed her book from beneath the seat. He'd never notice…as long as he had his airplane peanuts.
After they had touched ground in Washington DC, they navigated their way to the baggage claim to…claim their baggage. Greg's suitcase they found rather quickly, though that was mostly due to the fact it was bright lime green. Where in the world he had found luggage of that sort she didn't know, but she figured if it was out there somewhere, Greg would be the one to find it. Sara's on the other hand was boring black, as Greg described it so nicely. Everyone had black ones, so every time they saw one heading around the bend they have to run up and inspect it closer. Lucky it only took six tries to find it.
"Damn it's cold here." Greg announced as they walked through the automatic doors out of the airport.
"Yes Greg, it's called snow."
"Yeah, I guess I forgot there was such a thing." He stepped out toward the curb and hailed them a cab, something he knew Sara hated to do.
"But didn't you live in New York before you came to Vegas?"
"Yeah…" He nodded as he opened the door for her.
"Thanks…but how can you live in New York City and completely forget snow even exists seven years later?"
"Since then I've managed to fill my mind with much more useful things than meteorology. Just because I'm a scientist…" He just faded off. She had made her point so what was the point for him to ramble on even more.
Sara mentioned to the cabby, "Harrington Hotel, please."
"Greg!" She sped up her walking pace to catch up with him further down the hallway. She had been too busy reading the itinerary that she had just been given at the front desk to realize how far away he really was. "Did you know that the day after tomorrow we get to go to FBI Headquarters!" She informed his quite excitedly.
"Whoa…the mother ship. I guess you'll finally be on your way home."
"Greg…" She scolded. "It's like the Mecca for CSIs…and you are a CSI now...remember."
He unlocked the door to their room with the key card and pushed it open. "Yes, but I thought you were dreading this convention."
"Well, every other day except for the day after tomorrow…" She followed behind Greg through the doorway and set her suitcase down in front of the closet to remind herself to hang up the clothes inside, but that could wait until later. She was tired; a normal day of traveling usually was enough to wear out a person, but she had been on the go for two days, not to mention the awful night's sleep in the airport. She walked across the room and pulled open the curtains to letting insome winter light to the dark room and to get a good look of the beautiful view. After that she let herself fall back onto the bed right beside the window and closed her eyes.
Of course she wasn't asleep, only resting her eyes. She then felt a slight dip in the bed beneath her which caused her to sit up again and open her eyes. "Greg, what do you think you're doing?" She looked over to him suspiciously. He was on the other side, his arms resting behind his head, like he was making himself right at home. "If you think that I'm going to give in and give you the bed with a view…you're crazy."
"Please Sara…" He whined.
"I called it first, tough luck." She tried to push him off on to the floor, but he didn't go anywhere.
"Hey…I wouldn't say that just plopping down on it is the same as calling it. You never said anything. You can't silently call something…that's like…an oxymoron."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere and you can't make me move."
"I think that sounds like a challenge…" The moment he said those words a look of fear came across her face. She curled up into a tight ball thinking she would be harder for him to lift up…he wasn't exactly Nick or Warrick you know. Though she doubted he could do it, in two attempts he had snatched her up and tossed her effortlessly over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, though slightly heavier. Though it was when he turned to carry her over to the other bed on the opposite side of the room, he forgot that he had earlier set his suitcase in the middle of the floor. His foot made contact with the green canvas and the rest up him went flying forward, luckily enough on to the second bed instead of the floor. But if Greg was falling then Sara was the first one to hit with a thud against the mattress, followed by another thud when Greg fell on top of her.
"I'm so sorry Sara…" She didn't say anything in response though couldn't help but glare up to the man above her. "I really am…" He apologized again, his words traveling a short distance from his lips to her own. "Are you okay?"
"Well…I will be as soon as you decide to move." Funny…he had completely forgotten all about that.
He braced his hands on the sheet at either side of her waist and rolled himself over. The whole thing was awkward, enough that he didn't even realize that there was just not enough room on the other side of Sara and he rolled right off the other side and fell yet again on to the floor.
"Ow…" She heard a groan emerge from the floor. She couldn't help but laugh. He helped himself up off the floor and brushed himself off. She was still laughing as he stood upright." "Haha…very funny Sara…" He was not in the least bit amused. He didn't want Sara to be laughing at him, it was embarrassing…and for Greg to actually be embarrassed, now that was odd. Nothing ever seemed to bother him.
"Are you okay?" She asked as the laughter died down. "How about you take the one by the window…I don't think this one likes you very much."
Finally a small smile crept across his face. "Thanks."
I've got a few days off for semester break, so I might be able to get another chapter up by Tuesday or Wednesday...but I can't really promise.