Okay, updating took a bit long. I'm getting the feeling that I have too many stories in work. Once I finish a chapter, I turn around and there's another story that I want to update. lol So thanks for your patience, thanks for your comments (Kegel likes reviews, really :P) and thanks to Emmithar for her betaing.

Chapter 2

Sixteen hours later Greg was jumping from his bed in a comparatively nice hotel room, if you ignored the fact that they could not see the sky when they were looking out of the small window, but only the metal stairs leading upwards at the house next to them. Only little light was making its way into the room, so Sara was just switching on the lamp that flickered briefly before deciding to actually stay on.

They had been picked up at the airport, been briefed on the case for that they had flown over, and then left to rest at the hotel where the lab had reserved a room for them. They had known before that they would have to share a double-room in order to save costs and to the surprise of everyone involved they had accepted that with little to no protest.

Sara seated herself on her bed, looking over to Greg who was now lying flatly on his.

"Are you tired?" she questioned.

Greg's head shot up. "No, of course not." He sat up quickly. "It's exciting."

Sara laughed quietly. "We're here for work, you know."

"Yeah," Greg admitted a little subdued, leaving his bed again, striding over to Sara's. "But that doesn't keep us from enjoying the trip at all, does it?"

He climbed on the end of her bed, kneeling himself onto it, watching her smiling at him.

"No, it doesn't," Sara acknowledged. Greg came closer to her, finally propping himself over her, grinning down at Sara.

"Nobody knows us here," he said. "We can be a couple as much as we want."

Sara had barely the chance to confirm that before Greg kissed her, laughing quietly when he drew back a little.

"Ecklie would go nuts if he knew," she chuckled.

"It's good then he doesn't. Do we have to talk about him though when we're in bed?" Greg pleaded, dropping down next to her.

Sara turned to him, stroking through his hair. "You're nuts, Sanders." She smiled. "But you're cute."

"And you're beautiful," Greg returned, and Sara giggled. She had not quite been able to get rid of that sensation that was coming over her since she and Greg were together. It had been a while but somehow it was all still quite new for the both of them. They were not showing themselves as a couple at work, and with the amount of hours they both were pulling, there was not much time they had to themselves.

"We're here for work," Sara repeated weakly, knowing she would not be able to resist Greg anyway, but her conscience speaking up nevertheless.

"Our work will start again tomorrow morning," Greg reminded her, and Sara only nodded, agreeing.

Greg looked down at his plate. "What's that?" he indicated the apparently dry roll, his eyes moving then to the tiny piece of butter and the small glass of marmalade in front of him.

"Breakfast," Sara replied in an earnest tone, but actually watching Greg amusedly.

"I figured," Greg returned, sounding tired. It had been a longer night than any of the two of them had expected and it was not like they could really reason that in front of the people they would be working with. But it was not like they had never gone with little to no sleep, so in a way they were used to it, even though there was a different reason for the tiredness now. "I've heard so much about the English breakfast-"

"I guess our hotel isn't pricy enough for that," Sara said quietly. "I think it said continental breakfast somewhere on the reservation."

Greg started picking on the roll, looking suspiciously. Sara was enjoying herself watching him, and could not get quite rid of the feeling that confirmed Greg's idea at the airport in Las Vegas. That it was almost as if they were on their honeymoon. Or at least on a trip solely for themselves. Sara banned the thought quickly, reminding herself that they were in London for work. But Greg made it easy to forget that sometimes.

"You have to remember that Ecklie had to split the costs on two as only Grissom was supposed to go," Sara explained him, tasting a spoon of the sweet marmalade.

Greg sighed. "I guess we can be lucky then that we didn't have to paddle in a boat here."

After Greg had chewed listlessly on his roll for a few minutes, Sara took the last sip of her coffee and stood up. She watched him for a moment before she took his hand and pulled him up.

"We can get something else somewhere later on."

Greg looked expressionless at the rest of his breakfast. "Are we that late already?"

Sara smirked. "We will be, if you continue eating like that. Come, let's go."

It was only a little more than an hour later that the two of them were sitting in more or less comfortable chairs in a conference room of the local police department. Greg was looking around in the room and into the hallway, watching the employees that went in and out, trying to hide his nervousness and wondering more and more why they, as CSIs, were actually there, why not somebody from the Las Vegas PD had been requested who would have fitted in there more nicely.

Sara was sitting calmly at his site, looking not that much around as he was, browsing through the files she had brought yet another time instead.

When a man, who was about Grissom's age, was finally closing the door, drowning the sounds that had been coming from the hallway, Sara stopped doing that as well, and threw Greg a brief encouraging smile which he returned, surprised that she knew about his nervousness.

There were a few other people in the room who all looked attentively to the front when the man who they had previously been introduced to as Mr. Cooper began to speak.

"Thanks for your coming, Ms. Sidle, Mr. Sanders. I hope you have got some rest after your long travel."

Sara nodded politely. "We have. Thank you."

Greg smiled only.

"We hope our cooperation will lead to a solution of this dreadful matter," Mr. Cooper continued. "You may wonder why we haven't requested somebody from your local PD but you as crime scene investigators instead."

Greg nodded, having indeed wondered about that.

"Well, we don't need any police officers over here. Our people can handle the case very well, but what we need is the experience of you as CSIs who have seen the scenes in Las Vegas."

At this point he switched on the overhead projector in the front, and Greg and Sara saw for the first time pictures from the scene of the crime that had led them here. Greg was instantly reminded of the two cases he had been working several months ago. He guessed that somebody responsible at the crime lab, presumably Ecklie or Grissom, had seen these pictures as well, which had made them send Greg and Sara on the request.

"On the first impression, it looks just like the scenes in Vegas," Sara confirmed carefully.

"Yes, I've seen pictures from those scenes. Somebody remembered hearing about the cases in Las Vegas after we found those bodies last week."

Greg retrieved photographies of the scenes in Las Vegas from the file Sara had brought and found his memory confirmed. The similarity was definitely there.

"We were able to determine the cause of death but the circumstances of these killings remained mysterious. We can guess though that for the motive robbery plays a role since no wallets, jewelry or other valuable items were found with the victims."

"Just like in Vegas," Greg spoke for the first time, wondering then if he should feel stupid since he was only stating already known facts.

When the man in the front continued talking, Greg breathed out slowly. He had no idea why he was actually so nervous. This was a simple conference between colleagues, even if they were from different countries; he had brought court sessions behind him, as a CSI and as the one who would possibly be charged. There was no reason for him to lose his nerves now.

When Mr. Cooper had finished his short presentation, the other man and woman in the room, one of them the coroner, told about their findings, before the conference was ended so that Greg and Sara could go over and take a closer look at the scene themselves.

Greg guessed that it would be a long day, and hoped that he would really show the experience people seemed to expect. At least Sara was with him. He was still learning from her, and she was his partner, even more so now than most people could see.

TBC