Home of Greg Sanders Slash Fiction
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10:30 THAT NIGHT:
Grissom rubbed his eyes as he sat up and silenced the softly
beeping alarm on his watch. Despite all protests, once Nick's injury
had been reevaluated and the cast replaced, Gil had sent him home to
rest. Then, as Catherine had done earlier, Greg's supervisor spent
his day sleeping a few feet away from his young DNA tech.
His expression one of grave reflection, Grissom sighed quietly and
momentarily studied Greg, reassuring himself that nothing had changed
since he went to sleep. Only then did he slide his feet to the floor,
stand and move into the tiny bathroom. When he emerged, marginally
cleaner and more alert than when he'd entered, he found Sara sitting
beside the bed, gently stroking Greg's hair off his forehead and
whispering to him. Gil cleared his throat softly and Sara turned to
look at him.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself. Shouldn't you be at work?"
"That's right, you've been here all day so you haven't heard. After
they found out what happened, the day shift CSI's that were off or
just on call had a big cell phone marathon this morning. The end
result was that they decided to cover the field work for tonight and
give our team some extra down time."
Grissom's eyebrow lifted.
"Ecklie'll never let it happen."
"He can't do anything about it. They went over the weasel's head and
talked to the director. Once he heard they don't expect to be paid
for the extra work he was happy to approve it."
"Hmmph. Interesting..."
A moment later the door opened with a small rush of cool air and
Catherine, Nick and Warrick entered. "Nick, you're supposed to be
home resting..." Gil began, but the other man cut him off with a
light grin, raising the arm that wasn't currently suspended in a
sling and producing the Boy Scout salute.
"I followed orders, I swear. I slept a good seven hours. Then Cath
called and said we had the night to ourselves... an' I just had to
come back. After... well, after it was over, Denson wouldn't let me
back in an' then you made me go home... I had to see for myself Greg
was really okay. Met these two in the lobby while I was waitin' for
the elevator. I reckon we all had the same idea about how to spend
our free time."
The eyebrow slid up again at Nick's uncommon use of the peculiarly
Southern word. The native Texan glared mildly. "I'll tell you what I
told Sara. It happens when I get stressed. Once everything's back to
normal, the slang'll quit creepin' in the back door, okay?"
"I wasn't criticizing, Nick. The way you speak is a part of who you
are and where you come from. To deny your idioms and speech patterns
is to deny yourself. I'd never ask you to do that. Sara, would you
come help me grab some extra chairs? I have a feeling we'll all be
here for a while."
"Yeah, sure."
As the pair left, Nick's scowl transformed into a confused smile and
a shake of the head.
"What?" Warrick asked.
"Just when I think I'm beginnin' to get a handle on the guy, he
throws me a curve I can't even see, never mind make contact with.
Just once I'd like to be able to slap a base hit back in his
direction..."
"Wouldn't we all," Catherine responded matter-of-factly. "Wouldn't we
all."
A few minutes later, Gil and Sara returned with four more chairs and
the group settled around the bed in a loose semi-circle. For a little
while, the room was utterly silent except for the background noise of
the machine breathing for Greg and the more natural breathing of his
five friends. When Sara suddenly spoke up, it startled the others,
but noone interrupted to berate her, mostly because her words had
temporarily knocked the wind out of the other four. The young woman
had lifted Greg's slack hand and was holding it against her cheek,
while she talked as if they were the only ones in the room.
"I should have told you. You or somebody... I just never had any
reason to. Who needs the pity, right? Besides, it's been way too damn
long. Nothin' anybody can do now. It's my issue, I'll deal with it...
same way I always have. Just... now that I think about the other
night... maybe if I'd said something... at least you would've known
you weren't alone. I could've given you that at least..."
When her voice began to crack, she broke off and simply clutched the
cool fingers against her own warmer skin. Warrick rose and moved to
crouch at her side, touching her arm.
"Sara... what are you saying? What happened the other night?"
"Huh? Oh... a couple days back I came to check on Greg before I went
on shift. That doctor, Denson... he was trying to examine him... see
how the damage from the rape was healing. The kid... he was totally
freaked. He wouldn't let anybody touch him, so I calmed him down...
showed him how to get through it. I told him, you just have to send
your brain on vacation 'till it's over..."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I figured he'd be embarrassed." She explained, looking around
quickly and ending up locked into Nick's eyes. The recognition and
compassion she saw there had her standing and backing away so
abruptly that her chair toppled over. She was out of the room almost
before she heard him speak.
"Sara... God, no..."
Nick rose and started to follow, but Warrick halted him.
"I'll go."
"Okay..."
"If I can get her to come back, I will."
"Don't push her. If she really fights you... let her go."
"Got it."
Nick slowly reclaimed his chair, images from a long-gone case
flitting through his head. At last, moments and expressions that had
confused him at the time began to make sense. He tilted his head
back, laid a hand over his face and moaned quietly.
"God... I'm so stupid. I should've seen it... I knew somethin' was
goin' on with her then... I just didn't know what..."
Grissom pulled Nick's hand down. Reluctantly, Nick opened his eyes
and faced his boss.
"Seen what, Nick?"
"Remember the double home invasion case? The retired teacher, then
the girl that got gang raped. Her parents were so scared they
wouldn't let us help at first..."
"The Kirkwoods? I remember."
"There was somethin' really off about Sara through that whole case.
She just wasn't... herself. When we found the girl dead... I swear,
Sara Sidle is one of the strongest, most solid people I've ever known
in my life, but sittin' in the back of that car she just looked ...
helpless. The days after that were so crazy... I kept meanin' to sit
her down and ask her what was up, but there was just never a good
time. Then I guess I kinda decided leavin' it alone was better for
everybody."
"Nick... you're not thinking... it can't be. Not Sara..." Catherine
managed, her face gone utterly white.
"Takes a survivor to know a survivor. She didn't read about
that "mind vacation" trick in any book or pysch journal. She's had to
use it."
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"Sara..."
"Don't. Don't touch me, don't talk to me and *don't* try to calm me
down... Just back off, damn it."
"Understood."
"Then do it. Turn around and walk away."
"Sorry, no."
"No? What the hell, Warrick? You don't understand English anymore?"
"I won't come any closer... but I also can't leave you by yourself.
Not 'till I know you'll be alright."
"Son of a... if I promise not to slit my wrists the minute you turn
your back will you go the hell away? Please?"
"Hey, ease up, girl. I never said I thought that. I'm your friend.
Bein' scared for each other is what friends do."
"I don't." she replied, almost too softly for him to hear.
"Don't what?"
Instead of giving him a direct answer, she asked a question,
desperately trying to get her point across.
"You ever see that movie... about the robot that gets hit by
lightning?"
"And it makes him alive... "Short Circuit"
"Yeah. Remember that line about robots and feelings?"
"Kind of. Something like 'they don't get sad, they don't get happy,
they just run programs'."
"I've got a really good program running right now, Warrick. It works
for me. You try and screw that up... I'll never forgive you."
"Sara, c'mon... it can't be workin' that well if you're this upset."
"God... why do you have to be so freaking stubborn?! Why can't you
just believe me and drop it?! Let something go for once in your life,
Warrick! I am not upset!"
"Sure. You're screamin' in the middle of the hall so everybody in a
two block radius knows how pissed you're *not*."
Sara tried to respond, but all she could do was gape in stunned
disbelief that he snuck match point in on her when she wasn't
looking. "No more, I swear." He stated quietly, holding up his
hands. "You can go if you want to. Just try an' remember that I care
about you, Sara... we all do. You ever feel like updatin' that
program all you gotta do is come find one of us. Day, night...
whatever."
Warrick turned and stepped back into Greg's room. When a nurse,
alerted by the noise, came to see if Sara was hurt the young woman
slapped away the kind hands and took off running.
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TBC......
