A/N: I am so, so, sorry it took me so long to get this up. I've been super busy catching up on homework that I missed for a week! I plan on finishing this story before I go to Florida on March 25….I swear to you will try my hardest! Now enjoy! Oh and just a side note you might want to grab some tissues! ;D
Greg stared out the window of the café watching the rain pelt the sidewalk making bystanders run for cover. He looked at his watch: 11:23 P.M. He sighed and went to take a drink of his coffee...it was empty. He looked around for a waitress, but she spotted him first, "Need more coffee?"
Greg nodded and she poured him another cup, "Thanks."
She winked and walked away.
Greg took a sip of his coffee and pulled a slick black phone out of his pocket, his insurance covered for a new one when he said his other fell out of his pocket and got run over…the only problem…it was the same number. The phone rang twice before he hit ignore to take another drink of his coffee.
"Greg, Greg Sanders," Greg looked at the door to see a brunette smiling wide at him in a mini skirt and a revealing blue blouse. She walked over to him and slid into the opposite seat of the booth, "Oh my God I can't believe it!"
Greg raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
Her smile faltered, "You don't remember me? Annie Green from high school," she rolled her eyes, "We went to senior prom together!"
Greg looked at her confused a little more, but than finally remembered who she was, "Oh, I remember now…you look good."
"Thanks so do you," She waved down a waitress and ordered a soda before continuing, "So, how've you been? I heard you were working at a Crime Lab in Las Vegas that is so cool! What about a girl, are you married at Greg? How about kids, any of those?"
Greg shook his head trying to hold back the pain of her last two questions, "I've been good…as for work it's great! And no, I have no wife or kids."
"What about a girlfriend?"
Greg shook his head and looked out the window, "No."
"Aw, how sad," She went quiet, "I was married for two years, but it turned out he was no good so we separated."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Greg murmured.
"Nah, it's nothing," Annie smiled and tapped the table making Greg look back at her, "Hey, do you remember Kevin?"
Greg forced a small smile, "How could I not, he was my best friend."
"Well, he's throwing a party with his wife Beth—."
"Beth Cave?"
"Yeah," Annie laughed a bit, "Amazing isn't it? Well anyways, they're having this party and since you're in town…want to come?"
)()()()(
"Annie, I thought you'd never make it," Beth exclaimed hugging her friend. Her black hair bounced around on her shoulders unable to stop moving. She was going to add something when she spotted Greg, "Greg Sanders, oh my God!"
"Yep, it's me," Greg shrugged and allowed the girl to hug him.
"I have to tell Kevin," she spun and ran off leaving Greg and Annie in the hall.
"Shall we go and see the friends you left behind for Las Vegas?" Annie joked.
Greg nodded and followed her into the living room, but before he could say hi to anyone an arm wrapped around his neck into a headlock, "Ow!"
"Greg, you little punk, you come to town and don't even call me!" Kevin's voice boomed followed by a laugh. He released his small friend to smile big at him. Kevin's built figure made Greg feel like an ant, "It's good to see you man!"
Greg smiled back, "It's good to see you too."
"Man, so tell me, how many girls have you fallen for, and you know," Kevin wiggled his eyebrows, but Beth slapped his arm.
Greg laughed softly, "Too many for you to count." Lies.
"No kids I'm hoping."
"Nope." Somewhat a lie.
"That a' boy," Kevin patted his back, "I would know I have two girls."
"You a father, that's hard to believe."
"Hey, I'm pretty good!"
"Sure buddy," Greg smiled and looked around at the familiar faces finally feeling at peace, "Got any beer?"
"You bet your ass, I do," Kevin chuckled.
Two hours into the night reaching midnight Greg has probably had a good amount of beer in his system. He remembered Annie whispering something in his ear and then her pulling him into the living room towards the stairs, he looked around trying to focus on things. He looked at the TV coming to a complete stop. His heart stopped and his world fell to pieces. The beer bottle crashing to the floor drawing attention.
"Greg, let's go," Annie pleaded, but Greg whipped away from her going to the TV.
"No," Greg muttered as his knees started to shake.
"It's been six hours since Katrina Grissom was last seen at the park. So far there are no leads, but a suspect has been brought up: Brittney Kain, Katrina's mom, has been sending threats to Katrina, her dad, and her friends. The police have reason to believe that she is responsible for the kidnapping and advise to be on the look out for anything that might help. Another note that should be brought up is that Katrina is pregnant and going through a mental depression. We send our best wishes and luck to the father of the unborn child." The newscaster's elegant face disappeared behind a picture of Greg's beautiful Katrina. She was smiling at the camera, her bright blue eyes shooting off rays of happiness, her full lips begging to be kissed, as her hair haloed around her face.
Greg's whole world crashed to the ground and his life stopped, "No, no, this is my fault!" Greg pushed off the TV and got to his feet going for the door.
"Greg, where are you going?" Annie ran after him and grabbed his arm.
Greg looked at her with lost and sad eyes, "To save my family." He pulled away from her and ran outside into the pouring rain hailing a cab, "Las Vegas Crime Labs."
"That's along way pal," The cab driver muttered.
"Moneys not a problem, just step on it," Greg snapped.
"Alright," The cab whipped down the street leaving Greg's childhood behind them.
)()()()(
Greg took a deep breath and headed for the doors leading into the labs, but stopped as his phone went off in his pocket, "Hello?"
"Hello, Greg, this is Katrina's mom Brittney Kain, I've waited along time to talk to you," she giggled, "Now I need you to listen very closely. About thirty miles south of Vegas in the desert is a small underground military base hidden behind a dead tree. I want you to go there…alone and unarmed. Enter and wait for further instructions. Don't bring the cell phone." She giggled again before the phone fell silent.
Greg stared at the phone in shock and went to his pocket for his keys, but then remembered his car was at Kevin's house, damn. If he walked there was a chance he wouldn't get there in time…at the same thought two people walked out of the lab muttering. They stopped and looked at him.
"Greg," Wendy said, "You're here. Thank God!"
"Give me your keys," Greg said quickly.
"What? No!"
"Please, Wendy, I need your keys."
"So what, you can run away again?" Wendy folded her arms and shook her head, "Not happening."
Greg began to breathe quicker as his nerves raced; he looked at Hodges with pleading eyes, "Please."
Hodges gulped, but reached into his pocket to toss Greg his keys.
"What are you doing?" Wendy asked bewildered.
"I trust him not to leave," Hodges sighed.
"Thank you," Greg tossed Hodges the phone, "Trace it…please." With that Greg ran to the car to speed off into the dark desert.
Hodges looked at the phone in silence before it dawned on him, "Shit."
Wendy's eyes were with realization, "He's going to get himself killed."
"Not if we have anything to do about it, c'mon," Hodges retreated into the building; Wendy right at his side.
)()()(
Greg looked down the darkened corridor in fear, he couldn't see a thing. He stretched his hands out in front of him finding the wall; he slowly walked down the hall keeping his hands on the cold concrete. A buzz sounded from somewhere startling him, he froze and waited. The sound of whirring engines started up and the lights blared on, a camera at the end of the hall blinked red staring at him. Static blared out of the speakers up and down the hall before a voice spoke, "Welcome to my lovely home, Greg Sanders! You know, I've always wanted a real handsome lawyer to marry my daughter and get her pregnant…not some lab geek that gets her pregnant before the word wedding even crosses his mind. Any who, back to business, keep going down this hall till you reach the double doors, enter, walk further into the room till you see a sign that says: Medical, enter, and you will see what you came all this way to see." Static filled the air before silence enveloped him.
At least she had kept the lights on; Greg hurried down the hall trying to stay calm and ready for anything. The double doors squeaked open to reveal empty beds, "Cozy." He slowly walked down the length of the rooms looking at each door her passed, but finally the door her needed was right there. He took one last deep breath then pushed open the door.
Katrina sat on the ground with her legs curled under her tied at the ankles, her wrists were tied behind her back, and a piece of duct tape covered her mouth. She looked up at Greg and her eyes went wide, tears streamed down her face and she shook her head trying to scream something at him.
"Katrina," Greg started towards her, but a sharp pain hit his head and he fell to the floor. He groaned and looked up at Katrina dazed she was staring at something above him. He looked over his shoulder to see a pistol pointed at his face. Holding the gun was a woman with blonde hair and a wild gleam in her green eyes.
"Hello, Greg, it's a pleasure to meet you in person," She tossed her head back and chuckled.
Greg's head began to feel heavy and his eyes started to loose focus with black dots dancing around, he looked back at Katrina meeting her eyes he held her stare for as long as he could before his lids fell shut and the world turned into complete darkness.
)()()(
Greg's eye lids fluttered open and he quickly shut them again, the white walls causing the sun to bounce off at a very blinding rate. He opened them again and slowly sat up to look around the large room. The bed he was in had silver blankets, red pillows, and a black headboard. He carefully got out of the bed and curled his toes into the soft grey carpet; he inhaled deeply and looked down at himself. He wore only boxers…lovely. He walked towards the closet nearest to him and opened it seeing many different suits. He sighed, but decided on brown trousers, a light blue shirt, a dark blue tie, and a brown jacket. He slipped on some socks and brown dress shoes before exiting the room into a long hallway. He stopped and looked at the pictures hanging on the wall, many of them were of him as a kid winning science fairs and other geeky stuff. The other pictures were of a blonde girl mostly in cheerleading outfits standing with other smiling girls. The next couple pictures were of a little boy with brown hair and blue eyes; the first was of him staring at a hand made volcano in awe, the next was of him with Greg looking down at something in the grass, the next of him blowing out candles, and finally the last one was a family picture. Greg stood with an arm wrapped around the waist of a beautiful girl; his other arm held the little boy smiling big at the camera, Greg was looking down at the girl giving her a lopsided grin. The girl was looking at him with light in her eyes and a far away smile while their eyes locked in a silent conversation.
Greg ran his hand over the picture and felt himself smiling at it knowing now who was all in it. The beautiful blonde was the only girl he ever loved and ever would love, Katrina Grissom…which had to mean the boy was their son. Many things cluttered his mind, but only one name seemed to jump out at him: Peter. His thoughts singled out that one name and he smiled bigger, "Peter Sanders."
"I didn't do it!" A voice squealed at the end of the hallway and a quick thud sounded.
Greg looked down the hall to see the boy sitting on the ground staring at the wall dazed; Greg walked over and bent down next to him, "You okay, buddy?"
Peter looked at Greg wide eyed, "I didn't do it."
"Do what?" Greg asked, but right on cue a voice from downstairs shrieked.
"WHY IS THERE SYRUP ALL OVER THE FLOOR!?"
"Oh, that," Greg looked at his terrified son and winked, "Follow my lead."
Peter nodded and stood up; he followed behind Greg holding onto his jacket. They reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the kitchen. Peter pushed closer to Greg hiding from his Mother's anger filled glare.
Greg looked at the empty bottle lying on the table, the top hanging over the edge with syrup slowly dripping out, but that was not the problem. The floor underneath it was tinted brown from a large amount of syrup. Greg looked up at his very, very angry wife, "I am so sorry. I was in a hurry to go to the bathroom and I must've bumped the table knocking the bottle over."
Katrina looked up at Greg with an arched eye brow a smirk slid onto her face and she crossed her arms, "Oh, so that's what happened."
Greg nodded keeping his ground, "Yes, of course I wouldn't lie to you."
Katrina leaned to her left to look at Peter behind Greg, "And he had nothing to do with it?"
"Oh crap," Greg whispered to Peter, but loud enough for Katrina to hear, "she's on to us."
"So it was him?" Katrina asked.
"Run!" Greg turned to give his son a helpful push, but the little boy was already halfway up the stairs leaving Greg with an angered woman. Greg looked back at Katrina and shrugged smiling a lopsided grin.
Katrina smirked and walked around the puddle of syrup to look at Greg, "Have fun cleaning it up."
"Eh, with what?" Greg asked. He never cleaned up things this messy before so as of right now he'd probably make a bigger mess.
Katrina laughed softly and kissed him gently, "Figure it out genius."
Greg wrapped his arms around her and turned to face her fully, he kissed her passionately and pulled away with a cheeky grin, "I could think of another way to clean it up." He wiggled his eyebrows and Katrina laughed smacking his chest lightly.
"Ew," Peter said from the stairs.
Katrina kept her eyes locked on Greg, "That better not be my son, because if it is he has a mess to clean."
Pitter-patter of feet up the stairs, a door slammed, and silence.
Greg chuckled, "You're scary."
Katrina kissed his chin, "I have to be to keep you two in line."
"God, I can't believe this is all real," Greg muttered.
"What is?"
"This, you, Peter, everything," Greg held her tighter, "I couldn't ask for more."
Katrina was about to say something when a voice overlapped hers cutting her off, "Wake up."
)()()(
The first thing Greg could feel was the rope digging into his wrists, the next thing he could feel was his head pounding, and finally the floor slamming against his body.
"Get up or you won't see Katrina ever again," Brittany Kain said as she grabbed his arm pulling him up. She pulled him out of the room and towards a long corridor with many doors. At the end was a door labeled: Padded. Brittany opened the door letting in a stream of light to reveal a figure curled in the corner.
Greg squinted trying to make the figure out, but they looked up at him and the blue eyes blazed. Katrina stood up and stared at him in terror; Brittany untied Greg's hands and pushed him into the room. Greg ran over to Katrina and scooped her into his arms burying his face into the crook of her neck.
Katrina dug her fingers into Greg's back as if making sure he was really there.
"Enjoy the last eight hours of your life Greg," Brittany slammed the door shut locking the two in the dark room.
Greg turned and backed up finding the wall, he slid down to the floor keeping Katrina in his arms. He let her cry into his shirt for awhile before saying anything, "Are you okay?"
"Why did you come?" Katrina muttered into his chest.
"What?"
"Why did you come?" Katrina repeated looking at him, "How could you be so stupid!?"
"I came here because I'm done messing up," Greg said stroking her hair, "I lost everything because of me being stupid. When I found out you were kidnapped I had to come back."
"I'm sorry," Katrina whispered.
"For what?" Greg asked.
"For hurting you, for leaving you, for wanting not to tell you about the baby," Katrina stared at him with moist eyes.
"I shouldn't have gotten mad at you that day, so it was my fault I got hurt and you left," Greg paused, "As for the baby, why weren't you going to tell me?"
"I didn't think you'd care."
"Why?"
"Because you were hurt…and mad," she paused, "I-I was afraid you wouldn't believe me."
"The only time I was mad was the day you broke Nick's nose," Greg huffed, "I kick myself everyday for getting mad."
"Wait, I broke Nicky's nose?" Katrina asked surprised.
"Yeah, why so surprised?"
"I was going for a bruised or just bloody, but not broken," she shrugged, "I guess it's a little better."
"How so?"
"Well, he touched my Greg, he deserved it," Katrina muttered.
"Oh, so I'm your Greg?" Greg asked.
Katrina pushed closer to him, "You've always been, and I've just been stupid not to see it."
"You want to know something?"
"What?"
"When I was knocked out," Greg took a deep breath and pulled her closer, "I had this dream."
Katrina stayed quiet pressing against him breathing gently.
"So, it started with me waking up in this bed that I didn't recognize. I got up and got dressed, but the closet I went into had only business suits and dressy clothes…not really me, but I picked something out that matched. After, I went into the hallway there were pictures that ran up and down the length of hall. There were pictures of me from grade school and high school when I won fairs or other weird nerd stuff; the next bunch of pictures where of this blonde girl in a red and yellow cheerleading uniform with her friends or cheering, but each one showed off her radiant smile. The next pictures confused me; they were of a little boy with brown hair and big blue eyes looking at a hand made volcano, looking at something with me, blowing out candles and finally a family picture. I was holding the boy in one arm while the other was wrapped around the most beautiful girl I have ever seen…and just like that things hit me. That girl was you and that boy was our son, Peter. I said his name out loud only to hear a squeal from a child saying he didn't do it. Apparently he spilt a bottle of syrup all over the floor, I tried to cover for him…you didn't believe me. I had to clean it up, but other than that I realized how happy I was. I couldn't ask for anything else, Katrina."
Katrina's cheeks became wet with tears and she pushed her face into Greg's chest knowing he'd never get that now. She tried to look at him, but the dark room allowed her no success so instead she just spoke, "Greg…I-I love you."
Greg's breath caught and his heart quickened, "I love you too, Katrina."
Katrina's eyes watered faster and her world fell, "I can't live without you."
Greg closed his eyes choking on his words, "You have to for our child."
Katrina's sobs grew more severe, "No, not without you! I-I don't want to be without you."
Greg couldn't hold back his own tears anymore, "Katrina, listen to me. I need you to live; I need you to go on with your life…for our baby…and for me."
Katrina shrieked and hit his chest, "No! Never! If you die I die too!"
Greg let her hit him, but finally grabbed her wrists and talked quietly, "Please, don't. We both know I won't make it out of here, but you will. Promise me, you'll grow old and raise our child."
Katrina's tears stained her cheeks and she choked on her sobs, "N-no, p-please."
"Promise me," Greg whispered.
Katrina's muscles relaxed, "I promise."
Greg pulled her against his chest again and kissed the top of her head, "I never stopped loving you."
Katrina kept sobbing, but answered, "I will always love you, Greg…and I will never forget."
Greg kissed the top of her head again and held her tighter as she sobbed, his heart was falling to pieces and her world was dying. He had to be strong, but for right now…he wanted nothing more than to hold the one person he ever truly loved and ease her pain as their time together ticked by. Seconds will pass, minutes, and finally hours, but time will stop as they look into each others eyes. Tears streaming down both faces, hearts both torn, they will kiss one another gently and exchange 'I love you' before the door of the room would open. They would stand together hand and hand ready to loose each other forever, but that was then…this was now. And right now they were together in each other's arms whispering about stories of their friends, family, and times together. They will kiss with longing and hurt, but will never go as for as a good-bye. Tonight would be his last, while tonight would be her heart's grave. She will leave, but her heart will stay. She will live, but her hopes will die. She will raise the child, but her dreams will fade. She will tell her child about their father, but her love will be forever gone…