A/N: The Swedhis alias fan, thank you for your comments (both of them, actually!). somebody101, there will definitely be a scene between Nick and Sara coming up. It's already written, and will probably appear in either the next chapter, or the one after that. You're right, though: the poor guy needs some closure! Thanks for reading! wraiths-angel, did you see this one coming? You'll have to let me know. I didn't expect this to happen, until the words just appeared on my computer screen. Hope you like it! Cherrydrops12, as always, thank you for reading! odeepblue, that goes for you, as well. I appreciate how you always take the time to reply. Catnip, keep reading (or I'll call you, and just tell you the ending!). anneruhland, Grissom and Sara do need to relax, don't they? We'll see what happens on date number three. I actually can't wait to see what happens with Sara during the next season. Whenever I think about her, I think about someone with a lot of pent up emotion who needs some release. And coming from a person who used to work with people who have extreme emotional and behavioral disorders, some of these activities can really force you to come to terms with yourself… and not always in pleasant ways. We'll see what happens next! Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I'll try not to take forever to write the next chapter. They're just taking more time now!
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Disclaimer: I do not own any part of CSI or its characters. That honor goes to the good folks over at CBS.
Title: The Plunge
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High Ropes
"You got this, Sara," Nick called up to her, cupping his hands over his mouth in order to amplify his voice. "Just climb a little bit higher, and then you'll be at the top!"
"I can do this!" Sara yelled back to her friends on the ground, glancing at the next rung of the rope ladder located just above her head. "I can definitely do this," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes for a moment in order to center herself. "I'm strong, I'm capable, I can do this," she swallowed, reaching one hand up, clutching the rope, and then willing her other hand to joinher first one. Taking another step upwards, Sara slowly let out the breath of air that she had been holding, before slowly climbing upwards.
"Just a couple of more steps up, Sara, and you'll have it!" Warrick tried to encourage her. "C'mon, girl, you can do this!"
"I can do this," Sara assured herself. "I can, and I will, and I'm not going to fall." Taking another hesitant step upwards, Sara smiled, as she felt her fingers close around the edge of the small wooden plank, signifying her arrival at the top of the ladder. "I made it to the top!" she shouted, as her feet took another step upward, and she moved her hands further onto the wooden board. "I really made it to the top!" Grunting with the effort of pulling herself up and over the edge of the platform, Sara took another deep breath, calming her racing nerves.
"Nice job, Sara!" Catherine told her, shielding her eyes against the incessant glare from the sun. "Now go show these boys how it's done!"
"I believe I already showed everyone how it was done, though, Cath," Greg reminded her, his eyes reflecting his good humor.
"Can it, Greg," Catherine teased him, before returning her attention to Sara, who looked to be about ready to start moving forward.
Grissom carefully watched Sara, silently praying that she would be able to make it across the tightrope without incident. He remembered how she reacted to rappelling last year, and knew that heights tended to make her slightly nervous.
Closing her eyes for one more brief moment, Sara took a deep breath, before opening her eyes, and tightly gripping both guide ropes. "Don't look down," she reminded herself, slowly shuffling her right foot forward. "You can do this, Sara; you really can. I… I have faith in you," she whispered. Furrowing her eyebrow in thought, Sara hesitated. That's the first time that you ever admitted to believing in yourself. Interesting!
On the ground, the criminalists all stared up at Sara, anxiously watching her trying to cross the obstacle. "C'mon, girl," Warrick whispered under his breath. "C'mon, I know you have it in you to get across that thing. Show it who's the damn boss."
"Don't worry about her, guys," Greg spoke up. "She'll get across. I have no doubt in my mind about that."
"But will she get across without panicking?" Nick quietly asked his colleagues.
"She'll be fine," Grissom replied, hoping to convince himself of that fact.
Swallowing, Sara shuffled her left foot forward, so that it was resting just behind her right foot. "Just walk, Sara; it's not that big of deal. Just walk," she whispered, as she very carefully picked her left foot up, slowly stepping around her right foot. "The rope is swinging!" she tried to tell everyone.
"It's going to sway in the breeze, Sara, not to mention with your body weight on it," Catherine informed her, yelling back. "But just take your time. We're not in any rush!" she added.
Sara nodded, as she waited for the rope to stop moving. "Well this is slightly unnerving," she muttered to herself, staring down at her feet for a moment. "Oh, shit!" she hissed, noticing the ground far below her. "That's a long way down!"
"Did she just look down?" Greg asked the group. "Because I think she just looked down, and now she looks nervous," he noted.
"Sar?" Nick called up to her. "You're doing great, Sar! Just keep walking!"
Sara nodded, as she tore her gaze away from the ground, once again looking ahead of herself. "Okay, Sidle. You're about a quarter of the way there. Take another step, right now. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot," she ordered herself, taking one minute step after another. "You're almost there," she informed herself, as she swallowed, recalculating the distance to the end of the rope. "You're half way there now; you're doing well," she muttered to herself, cringing, as she felt drops of nervous sweat drip into her eyes. Rapidly blinking to get the moisture out of the way, she sighed, trying to catch her breath.
"Hang in there, Sara!" Warrick tried to encourage her, his hands resting on his hips. "You're half way there!"
"Keep it up, Sara!" Catherine added.
Sara again nodded, shuffling another couple of steps forward. "I can do this!" she grinned to herself in excitement, after realizing that she was moving along fairly well. "I'm almost there! I can really do this!"
"She's definitely going to make it," Greg pointed out. "See? I told you all so!" he smiled, proudly watching Sara up above him.
Grissom gave a small nod, as he watched Sara complete two-thirds of the obstacle. Just a couple of more steps, honey, and you'll be done. See what you can accomplish, when you put your mind to it?
Sara took another couple of quick steps forward, silently cheering to herself, when she was close enough to the second wooden platform to just step onto it. After catching her breath, Sara let out one more shaky sigh, before staring at the ground. "That was actually kind of fun!" she chuckled. "And I did it... the first time through!"
"Hot damn, Sara!" Warrick congratulated her.
"I knew you could show the boys how to do it!" Catherine smiled, watching as Sara slowly started her descent from the platform.
"Awesome job, Sara," Greg added his own congratulations. "I never doubted you for a moment!"
Once Sara's feet touched the ground, she glanced over at her friends and colleagues. "Thanks, everyone," she nodded at each of them, her eyes dancing in excitement. "That was… that was absolutely amazing!"
"I'm sure it was, Sar. And like Catherine said, you showed us how it was done," Nick grinned at her.
"Thanks, Nick," Sara smiled. "I really appreciate you saying that!"
"Hey!" Greg frowned. "I believe I showed you how it was done, first!"
Nick just chuckled, slapping the younger man on the back. Moving away from Greg, he then sighed, glancing in Sara's general direction.
"Is everything okay?" Sara quietly asked him, catching his gaze, and walking over toward him.
"Yeah," Nick hesitantly replied, running a nervous hand through his hair, watching her, as she unbuckled her harness. "But I was wondering, Sara," he cleared his throat. Leaning in toward her so that only she could hear what he had to say, he frowned. "Can we… can we talk later, though? Alone?"
Sara furrowed her eyebrow in confusion, although she shrugged her shoulders in the affirmative. "Sure, Nick. But is everything okay?"
Nick slowly nodded yes. "I just want to talk… if that's okay with you?"
"Of course," Sara smiled, finally removing the harness, and holding it up in front of her.
"Warrick?" Grissom then cleared his throat, eyeing Nick and Sara. "You're up!"
Warrick simply nodded, as he walked toward Sara, grabbing the harness from her. "Hey, girl?" he hesitated for a brief moment. "So, it's really not that bad up there, right?" he nervously asked her, carefully studying the rope obstacle course suspended high above them all.
"No, it really isn't," Sara again smiled. "And like Max was saying earlier, we're attached to a bungee cord. So if something should actually happen to any one of us while we're up there, no one has to worry about getting hurt."
Warrick nodded, as he gingerly slid the harness over his shoulders, letting Max securely buckle him in. "Alright," he finally announced, furrowing his eyebrows. "It's high up there, but I can do this," he added, as he slowly swaggered toward the rope ladder, which was attached to a tree.
"Okay, man," Nick clapped his hands, before once again shielding his eyes against the glare of the sun so that he could watch Warrick climb upwards. "When you get up there, just take it one step at a time."
Warrick frowned, as he tipped his head toward the sky, gazing up at the wooden platform. "That's really not all that high," he mumbled to himself, as he put one hand above the other, easily hoisting himself up the entire length of the tree. "No, this definitely won't be all that bad… and then I'll be done, and back on the ground, before anyone can even have the chance to miss me."
"Alright, Warrick!" Greg cheered him on, breaking him out of his reverie. "And hey, while you're up there, don't forget to look down!" he joked.
"Uh-huh, right, Greggo," Warrick grumbled, nodding to himself when he finally reached the wooden plank. "Alright, let's do this," he sighed, before slowly sliding a foot out onto the rope, as if testing its strength.
"You can do this, man!" Nick yelled to him from below.
Sara, still smiling in triumph, watched Warrick as he took another tentative step forward. "So far so good!" she told him.
"Uh-huh," Warrick again whispered, anxiously staring straight ahead of himself, and sliding his right foot forward another inch. Carefully setting his foot down, he took a deep breath, before picking up his left foot, and immediately trying to place it ahead of his right foot. "Shit!" he hissed, as he missed his intended target, his foot falling below the rope. Carefully picking it back up again, he struggled to steady himself, as the rope gently swayed beneath him. I want solid ground. Now!
"Holy shit," Greg whispered, watching Warrick up above him. "Did he just miss the rope?"
"I believe so," Nick replied. "But that's okay; he'll be fine." I hope; because if he's struggling with this activity, than I'm going to struggle, as well.
Sara glanced up at Warrick, studiously watching his progress. "It was just a minor misstep," she informed everyone. Cupping her hands over her mouth so that she could be heard over the slight rustling of the trees, she shouted up to him. "Come on, Warrick. You're a quarter of a way there! You can do it!"
"Damn it," Warrick muttered under his breath, as he took another wobbly step forward, his forearms shaking as he tried to grip the guide ropes for support. "This thing is more unstable the closer that I get to the center," he observed. And then moments later, "Shit!"
Catherine gasped, as she watched Warrick swaying back and forth on the rope. "What the hell is going on up there?" she asked no one in particular.
"The rope is less taut in the center," Greg quietly answered her question. "So the closer that you get to it—" he trailed off.
"The more that it shakes," Sara concluded his statement for him.
Warrick's foot once again slipped, almost sending him careening off of the rope obstacle course. After steadying himself, he stopped, took a deep breath in order to calm his nerves, and then tightly shut his eyes, in the vain attempt to keep the sweat from blurring his vision. "I really wish that I could just wipe the sweat from my forehead," he frowned. "But I can't do that; if I wipe my forehead, I'll have to let go of one of the ropes. So ain't that a bitch? Because there is no way in hell that I am going to let go," he grumbled to himself.
Grissom rubbed his beard, ignoring the conversation taking place around him, and stared up at Warrick. I can't believe that you're having this hard of a time. "Take some deep breaths, Warrick, and then continue," he called up to him. "I know that you can do this!"
"I know that I can do this, too!" Warrick shouted back, once again closing his eyes for a brief moment in order to collect his thoughts. Taking several deep breaths, and trying to wipe his sweaty forehead against his shirt sleeve, Warrick again cautiously shifted his weight forward, safely taking two more miniscule steps. "Okay, half way there, Warrick. You've got this," he muttered to himself, as he hesitantly took another step forward. And another one. And another one.
On the fourth step, Warrick's left foot once again entirely missed the rope, causing his forearms to uncontrollably shake, as he tried to steady himself. "Damn it!" he cursed aloud. "Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!"
On the ground, Catherine held back another loud gasp, as her eyes riveted themselves to the rope swaying high above the ground. "He's going to fall," she whispered to Sara.
"No he won't," Sara assured her. "This is Warrick that we're talking about here. He'll be fine. He's more than half way across the obstacle right now."
"True," Nick mused, quietly watching Warrick on the rope. "But that thing is really shaking," he pointed out. A bit more loudly, he added, "Take a deep breath, man, and just start to walk! Walk normally!"
"That's easy for you to say, Nicky!" Warrick shouted back, as he closed his eyes. "Stop shaking, right now," he ordered his limbs, as he tried to loosen his death grip on the guide ropes. "Relax your body, take a deep breath, and just go. You're making this harder than it really has to be."
"Warrick, focus," Grissom instructed him. "Focus on getting across, and your body will obey you!"
Warrick nodded, as he shuffled his body another couple of inches forward, freezing, as he felt the rope sway even more dangerously beneath him.
"Max?" Greg spoke up. "Is it supposed to be shaking that much?" he nervously asked the guide.
"The rope is shaking, because Warrick is shaking," Max informed him. "Just as soon as he calms down, the rope will stop moving."
"Well, what if he doesn't calm down?" Catherine hesitantly asked.
"Then he'll fall," Max simply replied. "I mean, the bungee cord will grab him, but he'll fall, none-the-less."
Sara gazed up at Warrick, biting her tongue for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she sighed. "Warrick, I know that you're nervous," she loudly started to tell him. "But you can get across this rope; I know that you can get across this rope."
Warrick nodded, as Sara's voice seemed to calm him down a little bit. Taking a deep breath, he took another step forward, swearing, as his foot once again slid off of the rope. "Damn it!" he cursed, as he tried to steady his swaying body. "Come on, Warrick! You need to stop this shit!" But it was too late; this time, the force of Warrick's foot slipping off of the rope was enough to make him lose his balance, forcing his body to hurl forward. Helpless to do anything to stop himself, Warrick let out another long string of expletives, as he felt his body plunge off of the rope, and toward the ground below him.
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TO BE CONTINUED
