Once again, school is becoming a really big pain...I'd really like to know what normal school is like...you know, the one where teachers can control students and you can actually do work! The only time that happens here is when you get to do an online course...the teachers in Spaniards Bay and Cow Head can teach circles around the ones home...well, our principle, anyways...

But, no one needs to hear my incessant ramblings..but understand that it means that a load of school work has been dropped on me, so it may be a little while before I can work on my story (don't fret: the most it will set me back is a day). However, to tide you over, here is another chapter...enjoy, and thanks to everyone who had read/reviewed...you guys make my day:D

CHAPTER 4: HEAR YOUR VOICE

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Sanders." Sara said, as her voice found her again, though shaky as it was.

"Call me Lily, dear." The woman said, taking Sara's hands in her own. "And don't be sorry. You had nothing to do with his disappearance." She sighed, closing her eyes and looking to the ceiling. "You know, Miss Sidle, my son speaks very highly of you. And I hope you can help me"

Sara blushed, but her interest was caught by her last comment. "Call me Sara. And I don't know how I can help." Sara stopped, her voice breaking. "I can't even keep my cool long enough to even help Greg now, honestly."

"Please." Sara looked at the woman, the sombre passion in her voice surprising Sara, as she was a second ago very composed. "Just tell me the answers to everything that you know the answer to. I have so many questions…I'm so confused, lost…"

Sara nodded to her, her resolve to not compromise the case thrown out the window like everything else in this case. "I'll do what I can."

Lily looked at her. "Thank you…Sara." She took a deep breath. "How did my son get kidnapped?"

"Well," Sara began also, "He was at a crime scene…"

"Why was he there?" Lily cut in. Her expression was still painted with confusion.

Sara, who was usually a little impatient, did not mind being stopped mid-sentence. "He works in the field now. It was his first solo case, and the police officer who was securing the scene was murdered."

"My little Gregory was out in the field?" Lily whispered. "Since when?"

Sara was shocked. His mother hadn't known? "For about a year now."

Lily was obviously in shock. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish. But she soon was snapped out of it by Sara's comforting touch on her shoulder. "It's okay. We'll find him."

Lily chuckled a bit, with a sad smile on her face. Upon seeing Sara's look, however, she spoke, answering Sara's unspoken question. "Sara dear, saying you'll 'find' someone is a very broad thing."

"What do you mean?"

"As my father always said, 'finding has many definitions. One is to come upon something by chance, another is to find through effort and searching, and another is to discover'. And quite honestly, I'd never survive if Greg's body were 'discovered' or 'found by chance'. That just isn't good enough."

Sara silently agreed with Lily. "We're going to find Greg, alive, Lily. I wouldn't have it any other way, and I will not lethim go, even if I have to turn the desert upside down to find him." Sara surprised even herself with her words, but she knew she meant them, and Lily seemed to recognize the sincerity in them also, and smiled encouragingly. Then Sara started the conversation where it had left off. "Papa Olaf was your father, am I right? He was a wise man. Greg spoke very highly of him as well."

Lily smiled. "Yes, Greg spent a lot of time with him as a young boy." Then, she changed the conversation. "Why was he taken?"

"We don't know yet." Sara replied. "All we know is that he was taken while on scene, and that whoever took him was a couple, a man and a woman."

"Sara, I know that I can't be much help, but when you go back to the case, if you need me, ask me anything, and tell me if you have any new news."

Sara nodded. However, her mind was lost in what Lily had said. It had sparked something in her, and something in her mind had clicked. "Finding something by chance…through search and effort…discover…"

But she was interrupted before she could get her head around what her instincts were screaming at her. She turned her head to see a very serious looking Catherine. "Sara, you need to come quick…" She looked at Lily. "Who is this?"

"She's Greg's mom, Lillian. Now what's the matter Catherine?"

Catherine nodded in the general direction of Lily, and then looked towards Sara again. "We just got a phone call. It's Greg's kidnapper."

"Forever must feel like absolute shit," Greg though miserably as he shifted again, from one uncomfortable position to another. Only an hour had passed, but with no light, no sound, no fresh air even, it felt like he had died and been resurrected over fifty times. He was waiting now for his captor, or captors, to come and see if they would forgive him for whatever it is that he did.

He did have a plan to find out what that was, but he needed them to come first.

For now, his only saviour was the apparition of the spunky fiery brunette of all his wildest, romantic fantasies. He kept his eyes open, hoping for the light that would shine above him, but in the vast endless darkness he could envision her as plain as the brightest Las Vegas day.

He could only imagine what her lips would feel like against his lips, her skin against his with their sweat and tears mingled as one as she allowed him closer to her than she had ever allowed anyone, and that vast trust and knowledge is what he craved even more than her body. He craved her mind. That was what he called true attraction.

His dreams were all that remained to him here. That is, until he was returned to the light and the pipe above him opened up above his torso once more. He heard the familiar voice again, thankfully much more calmer than before. "If you could call a crazed psychopath calm." Greg thought.

"Have you given it some thought, Gregsy?" She called, with some traces of pique in the undertones.

Greg grimaced, but he swallowed his pride. "Yes, I have sweetie, and I'm sorry. I was just a bit angry with you, that's all. I'm truly sorry for what I did and I'll never do it again."

Greg was proud with his performance, and he was even happier when she seemed to buy it. "Oh Greg, that's all I wanted you to say!" She paused. "But you still have to be punished for what you did."

Greg's blood froze. "W-what punishment?"

He heard a cackle. "We'll see, won't we? It's not only you that needs to be punished. I need to teach a lesson to that little slut that tried to take you away from me."

He started to panic again. He never knew what she was talking about before, and now that he was about to find out, he was worried. For himself and whoever the mystery woman was that he supposedly gone out with and was trying to steal him away.

It especially vexed him that he hadn't had a date in almost a year. He could not understand who this chick was. Ever since he started in the field, strained schedules and overtime had cut down on his 'bachelor-esque' activities. Not that women never caught his eye anymore, on the contrary, he did flirt on the occasional time he went bar-hopping with the guys, but he only wanted a relationship with one woman.

That's when his stomach fell, and his instincts told him he knew whom the mystery woman was.

He never heard Cammy for a few minutes, and he was left alone to his silence again until he heard her scream. "If you don't get the bitch online now I swear he will die a drawn out painful death!"

Greg gulped. He didn't exactly like the implications of those words. He heard a very angry, resigned sigh. "If it will get her on the phone faster, sure. Hold on."

Greg saw a telephone receiver drop down the hole. "Take the phone, Greg. Some of your pals from the Crime Lab want to talk to you." Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "If you say something about who I am, I'll make sure you suffer the consequences. I need trust in a relationship."

Greg, still scrunched up in the tiny glass box, manoeuvred his arm so that he grabbed on to the receiver, and brought it to his face. If it weren't such a dire situation, he'd be ashamed of his quivering voice as he spoke into the phone. "Guys?"

"Greg, buddy, is that you? Are you okay?"

Hearing Nick's voice on the other line made him break down. "Please help me guys…I'm buried un-underground and I don't know where I am...I-I'm scared."

"Hang in there, Greg." Nick's voice was laced with concern, but just hearing it made Greg so much more at ease, even under the circumstances. "Can you tell us anything about your kidnapper?"

With the threats still fresh in his mind, Greg wracked his brain to come up with words that Nick would understand, but Cammy would not get suspicious of. "Yea." Greg started, taking a deep breath. "Raven top, looks through amethyst, opposite me…God, please help me Nick!"

"You got to calm down, Greg, we're going to help you." It was now Grissom on the phone. "I trust you. You're going to be fine, but you need to be patient, and stay safe."

Greg felt himself nod, as if Grissom could see him. "Yeah…" Suddenly Greg felt the phone be plucked out of his grasp, and he saw it slide up the pipe once more. "No! Give it back…"

"No, Gregsy, enough of this pointless talking." Cammy spoke, "Give me that little whore now, or he'll feel pain like nothing else he's felt before."

Then, her disposition changed from threatening to one of venomous distaste. "Oh, there you are…hold on, let's let Greg in on this conversation…"

The phone dropped back down to him, and he picked it up. "Who's there?"

"Greg? Oh, Greg…I'm so sorry this had to happen"

"Sara?" Just hearing her voice on the other end made his heart throb. "Oh God Sar, don't be sorry, it's not your fault…"

"Lies, you bastard!" Cammy screamed to into the phone. "It's all your fault, you little slut."

"What did she do?" Greg asked.

"She tried to lure you away from me." Cammy said, distress lacing her voice. "Don't you remember, you were having breakfast with me, and she came, and you just brushed me off?"

"Who the hell are you!?" Greg cried, angrily and bitterly into the phone, as his questions regarded her haunted him.

"Greg, calm down." Sara said, her voice strained from trying to take her own advice. "What's your name, miss?"

Greg shut his mouth from saying all the things he wanted to say to Sara at that moment. He had to listen to her, and hope that she could use her position to help him. "Why's it matter to you, you little tart?" But, a second later, a resigned sigh sounded out her name. "Cammy."

"That's her pseudo name, Sara." Greg whispered.

"Shut up Greg!" Cammy screamed.

"Shh, Cammy, calm down. I wasn't trying to steal Greg away from you. Where did you see us to breakfast?"

"You walked into Frank's Diner just a few days ago…" Cammy whispered. "And when I saw how you and my Gregsy looked at each other…" She sobbed, "God, it tore my heart out." She paused, and Greg swore he heard a chuckle. "Which reminds me, Greg? You have a punishment to go through."

"Wait!" Sara's voice cut in. "Wait Cammy…I still want to talk to you."

"Sorry, Sara dear," Cammy said, her voice low and menacing. "Here comes my little Cal, to help me punish Greg for his little affair."

"No, Cammy, Greg didn't so anything…"

Greg had meanwhile started to squirm listening in to the conversation. "Sorry Sara dearie," She repeated, "but Greg has to go now…"

Greg knew it was now or never as he felt pressure pulling on the phone. "Sara! Cal is actually the first name of the man, and I was drugged, the needle…"

Then, the phone was successfully plucked from his hands. Greg leaned back in his glass box, satisfied that he did all that he could have done. But he heard inaudible shrieks by Cammy to Sara. Then it went silent. Knowing she was that mad made the quiet unnerving to him, and he started to shiver again. He mentally kicked himself for not telling Sara everything on his mind about her. From the way Cammy had been talking, she was definitely planning something, and he wasn't sure if he would ever have another chance. "But then," He thought as his heart ached, "That would just make her more guilty."

"Oh Gregsy!" Her overly fake sweet tone called down to him. "Sara just won't leave us alone until I tell her where we are…but then she may come and try to take you away from me again!"

Greg tried playing her. "But I'd never leave you for her. And, if you're so worried about her finding us, why don't you just give her a clue?"

"Oh, Greg, a game! That's so clever!" She laughed, and made Greg want to throw his guts up. "But first," she said, "for both Sara and Gregsy, punishment. Sara, you should feel guilty; this is what your meddling has caused your lover."

Without warning, Greg felt something hit his stomach, burning him relentlessly. He screamed in pain as more and more of the boiling liquid came pouring onto him, until almost half of the glass tank was full. Greg writhed in pain, trying in vain to get even partway out of the water, but not succeeding. He could hardly manage to keep his head above water, and he felt his head swim, but he knew that if he fell under the spell of the sting now and blacked out he would surely drown. As the last of the water hit him, and his voice started to fail him, he still groaned in pain. The steam burned his eyes, making the lids heavy, an a mixture of sweat and condensed water beaded his brow. And what made the whole thing worse was that he knew Cammy was making Sara listen to his anguish.

Through the pain, he heard Cammy speaking again. "Oh, stop crying Sara. Listen up; Gregsy and I have a little game of hide and seek for you. Here's the first clue: We're still in Las Vegas, and we won't be leaving." She laughed maniacally."But there's a catch. Each time you ask for a clue, something happens to Greg, so you better be smart. Have fun Sara!"

And as Cammy laughed again, Greg started to sob, crying as his body became numb to everything, and for the first time in his ordeal, wished for the friendly lullaby of death to sing him to sleep.