Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter took me so long to get out, it's been a very hectic and strange couple of months, but things are hopefully smoothing out right now. For anyone who was curious (since I've gotten a few emails) I finally got to move into my rebuilt home this month. Ironically, the roof leaks. Lol. I don't know if I should take it as an omen that it's rained more since I've moved back in than it has since the hurricane occurred, but right now I'm just praying that we don't have another one this year, since I was denied both hurricane insurance and flood insurance. Well, I was able to obtain hurricane insurance through a private carrier, which costs an arm and a leg, and has a 7 thousand dollar deductible.
Anyway, now that my life has reached some variation of normalcy, I hope to be writing more often. I hope you guys are still reading, and I thank each and every one of you who have expressed your kind thoughts and words during such a difficult 4 months.
Let me know what you think, your comments are always appreciated.
Jenny
Eight:
He wasn't sure if it was his aching head that roused him from his slumber, or if it was the suffocating feeling in his chest, caused by steadily increasing pressure. Either way, it brought him out of a pleasant dream into harsh reality.
The bright green numbers on Sara's alarm clock wasn't helping the situation. Greg could feel the pounding in his skull intensify as he tried to focus on the blurry numbers. He frowned, groaning as he turned away. Sara should already be at work, gone for several more hours regardless of the actual time. It was rare that she made it home before daybreak, and judging from the darkness of the room, the sun wouldn't rear its head for several more hours.
Part of him was thankful, he wasn't ready to face her yet, he wasn't ready to remember everything that had happened to bring them to this point. Alone, in the dark, he could pretend like none of it had happened, that he hadn't broken down in front of the one woman he always sought to please. He couldn't face the realization that the only thing he truly wanted out of life was now completely out of his grasp.
To make things even more miserable than they already were, he had to live with the knowledge that he had been responsible for everything that had happened over the last few months. If he hadn't been so forceful with Sara, they wouldn't have fought and she wouldn't have been hit by a car. If she wasn't in that accident, he wouldn't have been fighting with Nick. If had hadn't fought with Nick, Warrick wouldn't have told him to leave. If Warrick hadn't said that, he may have stayed in town. After spending months blaming everyone else for his miserable state of being, it all led back to one person, one cause, and his name was Greg Sanders.
As unwilling as he was to face her, he couldn't help but want to be in the presence of her company. She was so caring, so understanding, not to mention beautiful. He was going to have to talk, actually talk, to her sooner or later, and the longer he waited, the harder it would be. The idea of sitting alone in her apartment all night was enough to make him feel crazier than he already felt, stirring up the impulse to run away and retreat to his quiet, lonely life in Texas. Of course, he wouldn't be able to do that, no matter how easy it seemed.
He reached for the phone, dialing half of her cell number before hanging up and groaning. What was he doing? He couldn't just call her and tell her to come home, that wouldn't be fair to anyone. He knew she would come if he asked, but he wasn't going to be that selfish. He could wait until she came home.
Forcing his eyes open, he tried to read the numbers on the clock once more, but the numbers still swam in front of his unfocused eyes. He fished around in Sara's bedside table for a bottle of aspirin that he knew she kept for occasions such as these.
He swallowed the two tiny pills dry, groaning as he rolled onto his back. His head was throbbing unmercifully, and while his chest wasn't necessarily painful, he could tell it was congested just by the way it felt when he tried to breathe deeply. Looking back, maybe spending several hours in the rain wasn't such a good idea.
Deciding a couple more hours of sleep would do him well, Greg rolled over and laid his head close to the pillow Sara had slept on, smiling softly as he inhaled the sweet scent of her perfume.
Sara entered the locker room, determined to find out exactly what had happened between Greg and Warrick before Greg disappeared. She spotted Warrick standing next to his locker, taping up a new picture of Lyle on the inside, and decided that it was time to find out the truth, she wasn't going to live one more moment caught up in lies.
"Warrick, do you have a minute?"
Warrick looked up, giving Sara a warm smile, "Sure Sara, what's up? How long have you been here? You look exhausted already."
"Thanks Warrick, you sure do know how to flatter a woman." Sara replied with a smile, "I actually have something I need to ask you, about the day Greg left."
They both turned towards the entrance when Nick walked in the locker room. As the Texan noticed the other two talking, he stopped and turned around, content to wait until Sara was gone to get ready for work.
"What's going on?" Warrick asked the two, feeling the air thicken with tension, "Did I miss something?"
Sara looked as if she wanted to say something, but didn't have a chance as Nick began to speak, "Sara and Greg are back together--"
"No we aren't, Nick, stop trying to twist the situation around--"
"Brought him home in the pouring rain, and coddled him like a baby--"
"Idiotic assumptions and inappropriate kissing--"
"Forgives everything he ever did to her, and will probably do again--"
"With his holier-than-thou attitude and pessimistic views about everything--"
"Irresponsible and unreasonable, not to mention unreliable--"
"Pompous, arrogant, and spiteful--"
Warrick held up his hands, cutting off both Sara and Nick in the middle of their tirades, "Hold on, I don't want to hear another word. I refuse to get caught in the middle of this debate, and I strongly suggest that the two of you sit down somewhere and talk this out. You are too good of friends to let one night of anger destroy your relationship."
"Sara and I have no relationship to destroy." Nick said icily, turning and walking out of the locker room, leaving a fuming Sara and a still confused Warrick.
Warrick rubbed her arm gently, watching as she tried to cool her anger down and focus on what they had been talking about, "What was it you wanted to ask me?"
"I...I know it's not really much of my business, but it seems to be a real concern with Greg, and I think I need to fully understand the reasons behind his decisions to leave--"
Before she could finish her explanation, Grissom walked into the locker room, "Good, both of you are here. We've got a stabbing victim in McLauren Park, it's about to start raining again, you two better hurry up. Two cars, incase another case comes along, it looks to be the start of a busy shift."
"We'll finish this later." Warrick told Sara as he grabbed his kit, "Let's get out there before the sky opens up again."
XXXXX
Sara pulled up to McLauren park, parking behind Warrick and walking up to where her coworker and the detective were already talking.
"Your victim was a male, early 30s, he's been transported to Desert Palm via air-med, he's in pretty bad shape." Detective Munoz recapped for Sara, "No identification, wallet appears to have been stolen."
"Mugging?" Warrick questioned, glancing over to the blood soaked pavement, "Anything else?"
"No witnesses, the 911 call was anonymous; we traced it back to a payphone from across the street," He pointed over their shoulders, "I've got a court appearance in a few hours, I still need to review the details, can you two handle this on your own?"
Warrick nodded over the thunder, his unease growing as lightning flashed through the sky, "You swab the blood, I'll check the phone booth. We may not have much time before," another flash of lightning filled the air and Warrick gestured to the sky, not needed to complete his statement.
Although she hated being told what to do, Sara knew he was right, and she began to take a blood sample, making sure to also take ample amount of pictures to back up any evidence they may find. Especially in situations where rain was a factor, it was extremely important to document everything, no matter how trivial is seemed at the time. If they needed any information from their crime scene at a later date, photographs would be all they had.
Above her, the sky rumbled once more and the first drop of rain splashed against her face, causing her to quickly gather her possessions and hurry back towards her car. She met with Warrick as they crossed paths, stopping only long enough for him to inform her that he was heading to the hospital. Taking his evidence bag, she decided to head back to the lab and start processing the small quantity of evidence they had been able to obtain.
As she drove in the light rain, she couldn't help but let her thoughts wander to Greg. Things were rapidly changing between them, yet again, causing her to feel like she was caught up in a whirlwind of emotions and fears. Was he feeling the same? Could he be thinking about her the same was she was thinking of him?
She glanced at the clock as she arrived at the lab, hoping that Warrick wouldn't be too long at the hospital, she still hadn't gotten to talk to him about what was said to Greg so many months ago. As much as she wanted to believe she and Greg could work on their relationship, she knew that Greg's insecurities laid in those words Warrick had told him in anger. To get through to Greg, she had to dispel any false notions that Warrick had placed in his head. She had a feeling that even though the last few months had been torture, the worst was still yet to come.
XXXXXX
Sara was impatiently tapping her fingers against the counter in the break room, silently willing the coffee to brew faster, as the rain pounded the building. She groaned as the lights flickered, praying that if the power did go out, it would wait until there was at least one cup of coffee ready.
She pulled out her cell phone to check on Greg, cursing softly as she realized the battery was dead. She frowned as she placed it on the counter, it was odd that her battery would die in the middle of a shift, she usually charged it every night. With a sigh, she left her coffee pot vigil and went to her locker, in search of a spare battery. In the back of her mind, she remembered having a spare in her kit, but she couldn't remember seeing it recently enough to be sure.
She made it halfway down the hallway when the lights went out, causing her to trip over what she presumed was a chair in the hallway, landing face-down on the floor, her hands breaking her fall, as the air was knocked out of her chest.
"Are you okay?" Catherine's concerned voice asked, her slender hand reaching out to pull Sara to her feet. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."
Okay, maybe she hadn't tripped over a chair after all.
"This is some storm we're having," Sara said softly, "I can only remember one other time where the weather knocked out our power."
Catherine was silent as she remembered the tense time following the accident she and Sara had been in several years earlier, "I remember." That freak accident, combined with the night Eddie died, caused her heart to race every time they had a storm of this magnitude. She sighed, "When it rains, it pours."
"How very cliche of you, Catherine." Sara smirked, "I guess this means that I'll have to forego coffee for awhile, I was really starting to look forward to that sludge Ecklie buys."
Catherine walked beside Sara as the brunette made her way to the locker room, concerned by her friend's overall cheerful disposition.
"I don't mean to be rude, Sara, but why are you still here?" Catherine asked, her voice taking on a motherly and concerned tone, "I know if my best friend was in the hospital, even if he was an ex-boyfriend, I'd be sticking to him like glue."
Even in the dim light of the emergency backup lights, Catherine could see Sara's face pale, "Sar? Didn't Warrick call you?"
"What do you mean?" Sara's shaky voice asked as she nervously toyed with her lock, "What ex-boyfriend?"
"Oh my God, Sara, I'm so sorry. I thought you knew." Catherine said quietly, her hand reaching out to Sara's shoulder, "Warrick called me, I just assumed he had called you--"
"Cell battery is dead." Sara said softly, trembling slightly, "Greg?"
Catherine squeezed Sara's shoulder gently, "I'm sorry Sara, Greg was your vic in the park. He's still in surgery, the doctor hasn't been able to give Warrick much information so far."
Sara sank onto the bench, her heart skipping a few beats. What was Greg doing in the park, alone, in the middle of the night? Who would want to hurt Greg? Was he going to be okay?
She turned to face Catherine, who was watching her with a sad expression. Her eyes met the blonde's, and she asked quietly, "Will you drive me there?"
"Of course I will. Let's get out of here." Catherine said soothingly, pulling her keys out of her pocket and following the brunette, who was already halfway across the locker room. As they darted through the rain to Catherine's car, the older woman couldn't help but pray Greg would be okay, for everyone's sake.
TBC