Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of its characters.
Summary: Greg undergoes what he never wanted to, but always feared to do. GregSaraA/N: A short story out of a mood. Probably a one-shot.
Jolted out
Greg did not know if he had sensed before that something was wrong. You always had this feeling afterwards that you somehow had known before, had somehow sensed a bad feeling.
There did not seem to be anything different, anything wrong when he opened the door to Sara's apartment. The first thing that was odd was that there was no light. He could not see any light that was on.
It had always been the first assuring sign when he had arrived home. He had opened the door and then he would glance into the direction of the living room searching for the light and being assured by it that Sara was there, waiting for him.
It was one of these days when Sara should have been home earlier than Greg. And on all these days she would be waiting for him.
But when he arrived on this day, there was no light. It was completely dark in the apartment.
Greg felt the worry coming up, only from the absence of the light. His reason immediately jumped in and came up with several explanations.
Sara was definitely at home. Greg knew it somehow in the back of his head that she was. There had probably been something in the hall that had told him so.
He walked through the flat, needing seemingly awfully long to reach the bedroom.
He opened the door like in slow motion, stepping into the room, searching the darkness with his eyes.
He could not move, apparently could not even breathe. He felt as if he was standing there staring for hours, unable to move nearer to what met his eyes.
He could not feel his body, his head was swimming.
Then from one to the other second he was able to stumble forward, plunging onto the bed, next to the form that was lying on there, twisted in an odd angle, eyes open, but unmoving.
Greg trembled harder than he ever had done before, when he reached out to Sara.
He touched her throat gently, searching for a sign of life. He was waiting for the sign, but beginning slowly to realize that there was none, that the only pounding was coming from him.
He looked into her eyes, something he had avoided to do so far and they told him even more clearly that there was no life anymore.
Greg trembled, sobbing, noticing now the tears that had been coming up since he had entered the room. He looked around wildly, almost out of his mind.
He thought his heart stopped when he spotted a large pillow lying only a few feet away from Sara's body.
Like in trance he reached for it, forgetting everything he had learned about not touching evidence. He starred at it, noticing a white substance on one side of it. Dried saliva. Then he saw the slots that had been caused by fingernails being pressed forcefully into the pillow.
For seemingly endless seconds Greg starred at the pillow in his hands remembering the case when a similar pillow had been used as the murder weapon, when he had discovered similar traces on the pillow, when he had pretended playfully to smother Sara, and a smile had played on her lips.
Greg gazed at the pillow in shock, finally turning his head back to Sara. There was no smile on her face now, an expression that had been the aim of almost all his actions in her presence.
It was fear, pure fear he saw in her expression now, though her eyes were empty. Dead. The smile would never come back.
Greg sobbed again heavily, feeling as if he himself was choking. He wrapped his arms around Sara desperately, shuddering when he felt the cold of her body. He pressed her against him, as if warming her would bring her back, his feverish body a contrast to her ice-cold one.
Greg trembled and sweated, finally sitting up abruptly, opening his eyes. He was panting heavily and looked around wildly, like he had done only some minutes earlier.
Sara was still lying next to him, the pillow dropped next to her. Her eyes were still open. What was different was that there was life in them now, that a smile was on her face now, when she was looking at Greg, and that she felt warm, when he wrapped his arms around her relieved.
Sara placed a soft kiss on his forehead, looking slightly worried now.
"You alright?" she asked whispering.
Greg nodded almost not seeable. "Yeah."
He embraced her a little tighter. "You're still with me."
"Of course I am."
Greg loosened his hold on her a little, looking at her. She felt warm but looked pale, even paler than usual. He saw her smiling and reached over to her to stroke her hair. He saw his hand touching her hair; only he did not feel it. He continued stroking her softly but finally stopped.
He started trembling again. "I can't feel you," he said, slightly panicking now. "I see you but I don't feel you."
Sara did not answer but kept smiling the smile Greg loved so much.
She seemed to become even paler now and when Greg blinked, she was gone, leaving him behind in shock.
This time Greg woke up screaming.
