Chapter Four: R&R

Shift ran late the morning of Greg's appointment with Dr. Holland, and he was grateful for the excuse to cancel. He left a message at the office and wondered how long it would take the doctor to contact him to reschedule. Hopefully, he would simply forget. So far, so good, and the next several days carried a hint of peace and relative normalcy.

He barely saw Sara. With him stuck in the lab and her out on assignment in the field, it wasn't uncommon to go all shift without seeing each other. He got out on time more often than the investigators, so he could feign sleep by the time she arrived home. She would fall asleep next to him, and the next evening they would do it all over again.

Not that he didn't enjoy time with her, but the latest episodes left him physically and emotionally drained. He couldn't face the questions he knew she wanted to ask, so he avoided conversation as much as possible. How could he give her an explanation when it made no sense to him?

At work, they were both preoccupied and concerned with what happened when he was locked out of the apartment. He also couldn't make sense of the television incident, but as the days passed and nothing new happened, some of the shock that initially held their attention faded. To Greg it all felt like an unsolvable case; to Sara, one of his flashbacks in the weeks immediately following his kidnapping.

She never found out about the seriousness of his most recent hospital stay. In fact, somehow that information stayed between Nick, Russell, and Greg. Not that Greg was complaining. The disapproving looks from two coworkers was enough, and in his view it was all blown out of proportion anyway.

A week into his confinement to the DNA lab, he had long since caught up on backlogged work and almost completely reorganized the work area. One particularly slow night, halfway through his shift, he crossed his arms and stepped back to admire his effort.

"It's like I stepped back in time."

He turned to smile at Sara, who had just entered the room. "It's getting there."

"Are the spiky, bleached tips next?"

"Let's hope not," he responded with a scowl.

"What does Henry think?"

"Henry liked the bleached tips."

Sara arched an eyebrow. "Of the lab."

"Oh. Doesn't matter, he's banished to toxicology," Greg shrugged.

"I thought you were going to play nice?"

"I am, and I did. He prefers tox. Do you have a sample for me?"

Pouting, Sara approached him slowly. "Can't I just say hi?"

"Of course you can. I love when you say hi." He stepped closer as he spoke, and then they were mere inches from each other.

Her hand crept up and laid lightly under his collarbone. He looked down at it and his heart thudded harder as the familiar magnetic attraction returned, if only for a moment.

He was reaching for her waist when a figure passed by the nearest glass wall of the lab, reminding him where they were. Their shared intensity was broken and Greg cleared his throat and stepped back.

"Aren't you working a case with Russell?"

The hand that had been on his chest returned to her side. "Yeah, the double homicide in Henderson. He's questioning a witness with Brass, and I'm taking a break from sorting bullet casings."

Greg looked around his empty lab. "Need some help?"

"Taking a break, or sorting bullet casings?"

"How about both?" he winked.

A few minutes later, the couple sat in the breakroom sipping coffee. As they eyed each other from opposite sides of the table, an odd tension hovered. This tension had been building for days and puzzled Sara but terrified Greg. Even their seating was wrong. They always sat next to one another, not across from.

"Look, the other day—" she began, but was interrupted.

"Could I ask you a question?" He waited for the confused nod before continuing. "What would you think of a vacation?"

"A vacation?" She looked startled.

"Yep. They say people take them to unwind and try new things."

"Oh, is that what they say?" Sara couldn't help but smile. "What makes you ask?"

"It's just that…Everybody around here seems to think I need one." He finished off the contents of his mug, then tilted it, glaring into the bottom. "Maybe they need a vacation."

"Well," Sara started thoughtfully, examining her own mug, "I've never really enjoyed not working, but sometimes I think that…yeah, I could use some time away, too."

"Where would you go?"

"I honestly don't know. There are plenty of places I'd like to see. How about you?"

She felt his eyes on her and looked up to see a small smile on his face.

"Ever been to Norway?"

"Never."

"Let's go."

Sara laughed, disbelieving. "Now?"

"Soon. We can both get some time away, and you can meet my family."

"You want me to meet your family?"

She tried to sound casual but some anxiety leaked through. For how long they knew each other, she knew and heard very little of his family. He didn't have any siblings, although she had met his parents. They and she rotated shifts sitting at his hospital bed following Greg's kidnapping, but their conversation had been limited to any updates in his condition.

His mother, Elise, had seemed free-spirited and strong-willed. She repeatedly vocalized her appreciation for Sara's help and her friendship to Greg. His father, Ivan, had been more difficult to read; reserved but overall polite. The couple never held hands or embraced in her presence, but when they interacted it was clear they were in sync mentally and emotionally. It was the kind of relationship that Sara recalled at one time having with Grissom.

"Sure. Why not?" Greg shrugged, pulling her from her recollections. A slight blush had formed high on his cheeks. "Maybe I want to show you off."

Sara averted her eyes to the table in front of her. "I'm not sure the lab would be able to—"

"Before you finish that sentence, it's already cleared."

"For both of us?"

"Both of us. I wanted to have everything figured out, in case you agreed. But," he added, leaning forward and reaching across the table to catch her hand with his own, "We don't have to. Well, you don't have to. We could do something else, go somewhere else. Hell, you could work if you want to, and I'll take a week off like the lab wants me to. But Sara, I really want to go with you. I think this could be good for both of us. My mom and dad are there, my nana, my cousins, and my aunt and uncle."

Tempted but still uncertain, Sara thought a while longer. "When?"

"Two weeks from now. We'd be gone for ten days."

She raised her eyebrows. "Ten days? That's a long time…I can't believe they'd let both of us go at the same time."

"Go where?" Nick asked as he walked into the breakroom and headed toward the fridge.

Greg looked to Sara expectantly and she sighed.

"I guess we're going to Norway."

The next two weeks flew by. Everyone at the crime lab stayed busy and things felt ordinary again. No more unexplainable events occurred and Greg and Sara eased back into the comfortable companionship they normally shared. Even though they hadn't discussed the incident further, Sara felt better about the upcoming trip because Greg seemed to be over whatever had triggered his panic attack. Still, ten days was such a long time in her mind and she wondered how on earth she could avoid getting bored. Even in a never-before-seen country.

Meeting his family was a task that grew more daunting as their trip neared. Fortunately, Greg had taken the reins in planning the trip's itinerary and had only allotted five days with family. The other half would be just the two of them.

They planned to spend four nights in Oslo with his parents and grandmother, then make the short drive to Nesoddtangen where his aunt, uncle, and cousin lived. After staying at their house for the night, Greg and Sara would camp in Finnemarka, a nearby forest and scenic nature preserve for two nights. The last three nights were to be spent at a hotel in the Lofoten Islands.

The last shift before she and Greg left for Norway, Sara was teamed with Nick. She tried to focus on work but was fidgety and nervous about the trip. On auto-pilot, she took pictures of their scene, so distracted that she didn't hear Nick saying her name until he was right next to her.

"Huh?"

"I was wondering what you think of Greg lately."

"What I think of him?" Sara repeated.

"Not him, I guess, but his overall mood."

She thought seriously for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was hushed as if someone might hear. "He's a bit withdrawn, but isn't that to be expected? It's coming up on exactly a year since his abduction. Besides, he was recently attacked on the job and everybody's telling him he needs a break when all he wants is to work."

"Are you sure we're still talking about Greg here?" Nick asked lightly, then winked. "He seems excited about this trip, and I think it could be good for him. But…"

"But what, Nick?" she prompted edgily.

"Be careful, and keep an eye on him. That's all I'm saying. Everyone has breaking point—even someone as solid as Greg."

Turning back to her current task, Sara absorbed her coworker's words and a small part of her admitted they held ground. For a brief moment she flashed back to that afternoon when Greg's eyes held so much doubt and fear he may as well have found himself on a different planet.

The trip would be fun. It would be rejuvenating. It was a vacation.

Just a vacation.

A/N: Yeah, shorter chapter but I wanted to get SOMETHING out there so you guys didn't think I ditched this story. I have a ton written for later chapters, but this early part has given me an awful case of writers' block. More will be up soon(er)!