DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI

Thanks to CSI001 for reviewing, hope you like this chapter. Italics, Sara's flashbacks. Hope everybody is enjoying this story and please, tell me what you think!

She had finally decided that he wasn't too much of a threat to himself to be allowed out, although she still didn't want him to be alone. Honouring his promise not to tell anyone, she suggested they bought disguises then went out and did something fun. Having no clothes anyway, and unable to return to the crime scene that was his apartment, Greg agreed. Two pairs of sunglasses, a beret, lots of fake facial hair, and several clashing coloured clothes later, they set off. The funn thing about Vegas is, nobody pays much attention to a few wacky-looking people. Chances are, they're wearing something even wackier. They went bowling first. Greg won. The they decided to visit the childrens play centre in the bowling complex. They had great fun, until they were kicked out for being almost a metre over the height limit. They went to a diner and discovered that chips dipped in strawberry milkshakes tasted way better then ice cream on burgers. Afterwards, they went tot the cinema where they saw a film meant for three year olds, and she laughed at him for crying when the princess found her puppy and they hugged and promised never to leave each other again. When they got back to her house, she insisted on watching a scary movie, to balance out the one they had just seen, and the pair of them ended up hiding behind the sofa, trying to reach the popcorn without having to look at the gruesome sight in front of them. Eventually, it turned into a popcorn fight, which Greg won. Overall, he had a great time. Greg Sanders was becoming himself again. All he needed was a reminder of how things could be, a reminder of how to laugh, how to have fun. The only thing that could make the already perfect day better would be Sara. But you can't have it all. And for now, he had the laughs. Laughs were good too.

"So, it looks like he wrote the note and then tried to throw it away." Catherine said, looking at the case photos.

"Or at least forgot about it." Nick added.

"Because if he'd meant for us to see it, it would have been in a more obvious place." Warrick concluded, pulling out some new photos.

"The fake blood, do we know that was his doing?" Grissom asked.

"Well, the prints on the bowl that Nick found, where the blood was made all come back to Greg. Also, the neighbour says Greg asked him for motor lubricant, which was one of the ingredients in the blood." Sara told him.

"So he wanted to trick us." Grissom said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"He wanted to scare us." Catherine guessed.

"Well, he did a good job." Nick laughed a little.

"And it would make perfect sense if we knew where he was." Grissom added.

"Could the note be a part of the joke?" Warrick asked, taking it out of the evidence bag.

"No way, you read it, too deep." Nick said.

"Also, we ran DNA on the tear marks on the note, definately Greg' don't cry while writing a fake suicide not for a joke." Catherine explained.

"So at some point, he wanted to kill himself?" Sara asked, her face paling again.

"Maybe he left himself?" Nick said, in an effort to change the subject.

"It's possible, his feet were never in the blood so he wouldn't have left a bloody trail." Catherine admitted.

"This is hopeless." Warrick finally concluded.

"True." Grissom replied.

Then multiple pagers started beeping, Catherine was the first to locate hers and read the message.

"They found Greg's shirt and jeans in a trach can. Covered in fake blood." she told them all, althought they were already reading the message for themselves.

"And the cops are bringing them down to the la right now." Grissom added, putting his pager back in his pocket.

"Well at least we have a lead now." Warrick said, tipping back his empty mug to get the last drops of coffee out of it.

"Man, how can you drink that stuff?" Nick asked, looking at Warrick's cup.

"I hope we get Greg back soon." Warrick replied. "I want the good stuff back again."

"The best thing to do, is not to cancel, but to let him be excited, let him look forward to winning his stupid bet and then just not show up. Let him think that I'm going to fall for it then make him look stupid in front of all his friends taht will probably be there." Sara knew she was disregarding every thing she'd ever witnessed in Greg, ignoring what she had thought she knew about him. The problem was that Sara had been hurt too many times before, so that now whenever she sensed that she would be hurt again, she became a different person. She just couldn't handle anymore deceit. It was why she tried to avoid relationships in the first place, too much possibility of heartbreak. So Sara began to craft her plan, oblivious to the potential heartbreak she was casuing somebody else.

She had stayed at home that night, watched television, turned off her phone. When she went to bed later, Sara felt satisfied. She had saved herself. Sara Sidle was nobodies fool.

The next morning she'd seen the flowers. She hadn't even realised he'd been there, but she recognised his scrawled handwriting on the note. Convincing herself that it was all part of his plan, and the fact that he'd obviously stamped on them waqs his irritation at loosing his bet, and not his sadness at her standing him up. When he texted her, pretetnding to act upset, so she told herself, she was starting to believe the things she had thought less and less. Feeling uilty all of a sudden, she had replied that she forgot to go to the date because she actually like Grissom, and was busy thinking of him.

"You forgot." he'd texted back. "Yeah right. I get it, you like Grissom so you didn't want to go out with me. Don't make up stories Sara, and don't lead people on."

Then she'd felt really guilty, but she eventually fell asleep that night, having convinced herself it was all part of his evil scheme. The next morning she'd forgotten all about it. Four days later she wished she hadn't.

Hodges had checked the shirt and jeans for trace and, finding nothing out of the ordinary, had sent it to fingerprinting, where Jackie had gotten no usable prints, so she sent it to tox, where Henry had cocnluded that the chemicals in the blood would have definately not have impacted Greg's health in any way. He'd also found evidence that somebody had been crying onto his shirt, and so had sent it to DNA.

"When are we going to get the results back?" Nick asked.

"I don't know. Wendy's out and I'm not authorised to do anything other than check if it's male or female, so far female." The new lab tech told him.

"All you have to do is press a few buttons right?"

"Talk to Ecklie, it's his stupid rule." she sighed, before going back to her magazine.

"At this rate, we're going to figure out who the girl he's with is before thet test gets back." Nick grumbled, meeting Sara in the corridior.

"The dumpster is collected every morning, so the clothes must have been put there after eleven a.m. today." she told Nick, handing him some print-outs.

"And the stuff was near the top right?"

"Yeah. So we can assume they were dumped recently."

"Great. Greg's cell phone is off, or else the battery's dead." he added.

"So no way of tracing it."

"Nope."

"Nick? I want to thank you for talking to me earliear."

"No problem Sara, it's better now, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

He was beginning to feel at home in her apartment, and it had only been three days. He'd bought some hair products and arranged them in her bathroom, bought some coffee and hidden it in her cupboard, bought some new clothes and hung them in the closet in her spare room. They'd thrown out his bloody ones and were currently attempting to charge his phone using her All Device Solar Charger while watching Law and Order. The sun kept going behind a cloud, and they kept getting distracted by the television so it was taking a lot longer than they'd planned.

Greg still wanted Sara, but he was training his brain to forget her. He was living in the moment instead, focusing on now. YOLO, he'd told Grissom once, in an attempt to get off lab work. It had taken Greg ages to explain that YOLO was slang, an abbreviation for You Only Live Once. Grissom had responded with some Shakespere quote. Greg laughed just remembering it.

She liked somebody too, and had no idea what to do about it. She was confused, angry at herself. Helping Greg had been the best thing she'd ever done, and she'd been having a lot of fun with him, keeping her mind off the person she thought she might be in love with. He had fun with her too. That was why, as they finally charged his phone and congratulated each other with high-fives and back slaps, it seemed the only natural thing to do. That was why, as they looked at each other for a second, frozen in time, it seemed the logical thing to do. That was why, as they leaned in together and their lips met, it seemed sensible. It seemed right. Felt right too. There were no fireworks, no explosions, but it was the most either of them had evr felt before. That was why, as they curled up together on the couch, ignoring the reality T.V. show in favour of each other, they seemed happy. And they were. Not ecstatic, but happy. Not delighted, but happy. Not overjoyed, but happy. Happy enough.