Troubled Times (Sara/Greg)

G

gregsandersfan

Pathologist
Troubled Times

Disclaimer: I don’t own CSI or any of its characters.

Rating: T

A/N: This is actually the fourth story in a “series”, but as I think that the three stories before it are too long to post them all in this forum, I'll only post this story, as I think it’s readable as a stand-alone story as well. The previous stories can be found at fanfiction.net though.

Thanks to Emmithar for betareading!

Summary: They had not expected anything to happen here and now. They had been wrong. And now Sara’s growing desperate to save Greg’s life, and her happiness. SaraGreg

Prologue

Sara took a deep breath, closing her eyes in an unsuccessful attempt to suppress the tears. She had to get herself together, for Greg, she just had to. She looked around in the faint light that was coming from the distant city. The desert seemed empty, was empty.

Sara turned back to Greg again, next to whom she was kneeling. He was trembling and barely conscious. His forehead was running hot under Sara’s hand. Greg had been fine only some hours ago, so Sara could not believe that he had turned this ill all of a sudden. There was only one explanation for it in her mind. And it scared her, terrified her was more like it.

She had called for help long ago, but nobody had come yet. Maybe it was just that nobody had found them yet. They had not even walked very far away from the crime scene and Sara knew for sure how to get back there; it was not like they were lost. But she was not willing to walk back and leave Greg alone. Maybe it would be her only chance though to make sure that help arrived in time.

She had long given up trying to convince Greg to muster the strength to walk back by himself. He was in no state to do so anymore. The only thing she could do for him was soothe him, wishing at the same time that there was somebody who would calm her, for Sara felt utterly alone and helpless, afraid that she could only wait and watch Greg dying.

She had made sure that he was lying somewhat comfortably, had covered him with her jacket to keep him warm, and was still looking back into the direction where they had come from what seemed hours ago, in hopes rescue would finally arrive.

Sara did not take her eyes of Greg for long though. She took in his features that were tense, but still alive at least. When he moaned, she ran her hand through his hair, calling his name soothingly.

All the happiness she had felt lately seemed to be like a distant memory. But she did not want to believe that all this would come to an end. She would not let this happen. But Sara did not really know what she could do to prevent it, to help Greg, to save him.

They should not even have come here. There had been a warning. Well, kind of a warning. Even if it had been so unspecific that Greg had held the view that he could not put his whole life on hold because of it. But coming out here had been a mistake. Only they had not expected anything to happen here and now.

Sara glanced around once again, but once again the only thing she could see were the colorful distant lights of Las Vegas and the loneliness of the desert. Sara was biting on her lips, shutting her eyes, hoping to make the tears stop. Crying would not help at all. She could not go and cry in front of Greg. She could not act as if he was already dead. There was still hope.

Now she was not looking back at him, but took his hand firmly. When she finally turned around to him again, the tears were gone and she looked at him smiling, for she saw that he was awake again.

“You’re going to be alright,” she ensured him.

Greg’s eyebrows twitched. “I’ll just trust that you’re right,” he said quietly, and Sara nodded hopefully.
 
I'm glad you liked it so far.

We're going back in time now...


Chapter 1: Guesses

Earlier

Greg yawned. It was certainly not out of boredom for they were busy enough, but because he was tired. He did not even try to hide it from Sara whose amused eyebrows raising he could see out of the corner of his eyes.

“I’m just tired,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes, before he looked at the clock at the wall.

Their shift had still not progressed very far. It was going to be a long night.

“I didn’t say anything,” Sara returned, glancing down at the papers in front of her again.

“But you implied it,” Greg complained, yawning again. He wished they would actually simply go over paperwork. It would at least give him the opportunity to have a cup of coffee in his reach while it was a big no-no with them handling evidence.

“So? In which part of my silence did you read that?” his girlfriend wanted to know, standing up to take a box of evidence from the table at the other side of the room, bringing it over to her seat.

While he would usually enjoy some teasing with Sara, Greg was having trouble to focus at all this night, so he remained silent now, grimacing then.

“I guess I’m too tired for that,” he admitted.

“Well, hopefully you’re not too tired for work,” Sara returned dryly, starting to compare the list she was holding with the items contained in the evidence box. She was focused on doing that while Greg watched her for a moment, before he continued working as well. He stopped again after a minute though.

“Was that a call on the carpet?” he asked carefully. Sara frowned, checking the last item on her list, before she walked around the table, leaning next to Greg to look at what he was doing. Greg smiled at her nervously, knowing she would not do anything inappropriate at work, but enjoying her closeness all the same.

“Don’t worry so much, Greg,” she told him quietly. “I’d tell you if something was wrong.”

Greg nodded silently, trying to focus on his work in front of him. . “So, what’s wrong with this case?” He glanced at Sara again who was still hovering next to him.

“I think we have to focus on the motive.” She looked at him, expectantly.

“Grissom would say,” Greg pointed out, turning to her, leaning on the table, “that we’re not about the motive, but about the evidence.” Greg wondered why he felt the need to quote Grissom here. While he had certainly learned a lot from his boss, he had done so from Sara as well, and Grissom was not always right either.

“Vegas isn’t exactly close to the ocean,” Greg noticed.

Sara narrowed her eyes. “It’s hypothetical.”

“I know,” Greg smiled. “I was just messing with you.”

Sara brushed it off, going on, “He showers, trashes the clothes, makes sure there’s no blood, no GSR left.”

“Motive still wouldn’t help us, since there’s no motive safe for the killing itself, so there’s no connection to the killer,” Greg shrugged, leaning onto the table.

“I just wanted to point out that only looking at the forensics is not always going to lead to the killer; it’s not always enough.” Sara stood up again, walking around Greg to a box on the other side of it. “But we can look at what we have, and see if we can find a clue to the motive in there.” She lifted the box, putting in on the table. “That’s what we brought back from the scene last night…” She emptied the box, putting several bags of evidence in front of Greg who glanced back and forth between them and Sara.

Sara had noticed that he was tired of course, but actually she had gotten just as little sleep as he had. Living together had made sure that they learned everything about each other’s sleeping habits and Greg had been more and more surprised how little Sara was actually sleeping, even on a regular schedule, when they were not pulling any doubles.

Greg took one of the bags from the pile, opening it with gloved hands.

“That’s really…” he trailed off, leaning over the table to get the bag Sara had checked earlier. She watched while he rummaged in it, smiling lightly to herself. She loved how he could get into a case once he found a clue.

“Here,” he said suddenly excitedly. “I knew I had seen this.”

“What?”

Greg held a card in front of Sara’s eyes with the back of the card towards her so that she could only see that it was a card in the size of a playing card with a strange motive at the back. He turned it around slowly, showing her that the picture on the other side was the tarot death card, causing Sara to lift her eyebrows.

“So, where did you get this from?” she questioned a sniggering Greg.

“Content of vic’s pocket,” Greg read aloud the label of the evidence bag he was holding and Sara recognized Nick’s handwriting.

“So you think because he got that card,” Sara emphasized the last two words, “he died?” Her incredulity spoke clearly out of her tone.

“Don’t tell me you think that too?” Greg asked, obviously thrilled. Sara gave him a stern look, before Greg went on to empty another bag on the table, this time belonging to the other case, pulling an identical looking card out of it. “I knew I had seen this before.”

Sara looked surprised for a moment, before she frowned.

“Ehm, Greg. Last night’s victim drowned in his bath tube while the other one was shot. It wasn’t some card that killed them.”

“I didn’t say it did,” Greg pointed out, looking playfully outraged.

Sara was laughing at him quietly. Her thoughts went to the plans she had. She had been thinking about it for a while, wondering and doubting if it was a good idea, but had until now come to the point that she thought it to be.

Greg shrugged. “But the cards are there, you know.”

Sara nodded at Greg’s statement, returning from her non-work-related thoughts to the task at hand. “They are,” she said slowly, wondering only for a moment about possible explanations for it. It was not what they were looking for though, there had to be another clue.

Greg looked at her inquiringly. “Do you want to take a break? You look like you need one.”

“It’s rather you who needs one, loser,” Sara remarked, but put down the file she was holding while Greg stood up.

“I can’t believe you can be awake with so little sleep,” he complained, while Sara dragged him out of the room. She let go of him once they were out in the hallway, looking around for a moment if she could see any of her co-workers.

“I just can,” she shrugged. “And it was actually you who kept us up.”

“Where do you want to go?” Greg distracted, his stomach grumbling audible.

“It’s not like every place has open 24 hours…”

*************************************************************

The quiet sound from a radio was almost the only thing one could hear at the place at that time of the night. Only from time to time sounded the talks from the staff through the room where Greg and Sara were sitting. Greg looked at the menu in his hand, watched by Sara whose gaze became more and more questioning.

“Have you finally picked something?” she wanted to know.

“Well, I’d like to try all that stuff,” Greg murmured, an embarrassed grin on his face when he saw Sara’s expression.

“Our break doesn’t last forever Greg…” It was not like it really mattered, since they would work overtime anyway, but she was not in the mood to explain a two-hours-absence to anybody, and it would probably take that long, if she did not tell Greg to hurry up a bit.

“Almost there…” he said slowly.

“Greg, it’s not like we’re here for the last time. You can try the other stuff the next time,” Sara pointed out.

“True.” Greg was still looking at the menu while Sara smiled.

“You’re smiling,” he stated, but there was somewhat of a question in it.

“Pick your meal,” she told him impatiently.

Later when they were eating, Greg was just taking a gulp from his second cup of coffee, when Sara asked him suddenly, “What do you think about us both taking a day or two off?”

Greg looked up from his plate. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Sara ensured him quickly. “Actually everything’s alright, I just thought we could spend some time together off from work…”

“You’re sure nothing is wrong?” Greg insisted, having stopped eating.

Sara frowned, shaking her head, and Greg pointed at his food.

“This tastes odd,” he grimaced, shoving his plate aside and glancing thoughtfully at the menu that was lying on the other side of the table.

“You chose it, you know.”

“Yeah. So I’ll ask Grissom for a day off then?” Greg emptied his cup of coffee, rejoicing in the knowledge that he had still some of his own stored at the lab.

“Ask for two.”

Greg grinned at her, and Sara knew that she loved him.

TBC
 
Chapter 2: Speculations

Greg opened his eyes a crack, closing them again after a moment, shifting slightly in the bed and snuggling into his pillow both tiredly and contently. He reached out with his arm, feeling around Sara’s waist and drew himself closer to her so that he was lying behind her, she sleeping tightly.

Greg snoozed happily, until the obnoxious sound of their alarm-clock was jerking him out of this. He groaned quietly, rolling around to shut the sound off. Then he turned back to Sara, intending to nestle into the pillows again, but Sara sat up, getting out of his touch and Greg opened his eyes disappointedly, watching Sara climbing out of the bed.

“Was just so nice,” he complained, drawing his blanket further up to his shoulders to keep at least some of the warmth in.

“We have to get up,” Sara returned mercilessly, walking off to their bathroom as Greg guessed. He shut his eyes again, trying to enjoy some more minutes of lying in bed. It seemed to be only mere seconds later that Sara came back.

“If you don’t get up now, we’ll have to leave without having dinner,” she warned him, and he heard her opening the wardrobe, searching for clothes.

“Can grab something at the lab,” Greg mumbled into his pillow. Sara was silent and he did not hear her making any sounds anymore either so Greg assumed that she had left him behind in the bedroom. She would probably be back soon, certainly not leaving without him.

What he did not expect though - and it was surprising that he did not startle - was her stroking his hair suddenly, and breathing very closely next to his face. Greg smiled, opening his eyes and turning his head around to Sara who was leaning over the bed. She kissed him briefly, then drawing back a little.

“Will you get up now?”

Greg smiled up to her. This was what he wanted to see every day of his life. He reached out to her, luring her to come down to him again.

Sara touched him lightly on the chest. “Get up.”

Then she turned around and walked away from the bed, going on to get dressed. Greg sat up, rubbing his eyes and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. Sara was certainly always able to get him out of bed.

“Coffee’s already brewing,” she told him.

“Thank you,” Greg returned gladly, walking over to her.

“I can’t have you falling asleep at the lab.” Sara handed him his favorite pair of pants out of the dresser and waited for him to decide on a shirt. “Hurry up, sleepy head.”

“I’m on it.” He grabbed a shirt and hurried off into the bathroom.

*************************************************************

Greg walked out of the bathroom, shrugging.

“I didn’t find anything. I dusted everything for prints, but there are mostly smudges.”

Sara nodded, sitting crouched down on the floor, leaning down to look under the couch in the living room and letting her flashlight wander briefly under it. Looking up to Greg she saw David Philips walking in.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” he greeted them, walking over to the body that was lying in the middle of the room.

Sara smiled. “Actually it was us being early,” she replied. “Despite Greg’s difficulties to get out of bed.”

“I like it there,” Greg returned grumbling.

“I know that far too well,” his girlfriend smiled at him, too.

“Anyway,” David tried to get their attention, leaning over the body. “It looks like blunt force trauma to the head. There’s a clear rectangular shape at the back of the head, probably from a heavy blow,” he told them and Sara nodded, having seen the wound before.

While David was busy to transport the body of the man off, Sara continued looking around, pulling open the drawers of the desk now. Looking through the papers that were lying in one, an envelope that was addressed to the victim caught her attention.

She took it carefully out with a gloved hand and opened the unglued paper. It contained only one item which caused Sara at first to frown, and then to turn around and call Greg’s name.

He came walking back into the room, holding his flashlight and blinding her with it on purpose for a moment.

“Greg!”

“Sorry,” he grinned at her bashfully, knowing too well that this usually made her melt.

“You’re not on a playground,” Sara scolded him though, and Greg switched off the light quickly.

“What’s up?” he wanted to know, shrugging.

Sara handed him the envelope she had found and he looked into it, his expression turning to surprise. He looked at Sara with raised eyebrows, holding the card that had been in the paper.

“Again?”

Sara nodded.

“Somebody sends them a death card and they die?” Greg questioned.

Sara mirrored his expression. “I’d rather say, somebody sends them the card, comes by later and kills them,” she contradicted him. “It’s the only way it makes sense. Unless it’s a big coincidence.”

“Yeah…” Greg nodded, looking at the spot where the body had been some minutes ago. “We should ask the others if they have also cases where they found such a card…” he suggested slowly.

Sara shrugged. “I’m not sure they’d pay attention to that. I guess I wouldn’t have noticed either, if you hadn’t pointed it out,” she admitted. Greg smiled.

“That’s why you have me.”

Sara looked back at the drawers, hiding her smile.

“One of the many reasons I have you.”

Greg chuckled. “I like being your partner,” he said with an attitude that made Sara roll her eyes. “What’s the point of those cards though?” He shrugged and Sara looked back at him. “I mean, if the vics don’t know what it is about, they’ll just shrug it off, most of them anyway. If they know what it means, it’s a warning, or what?”

“I don’t know,” Sara replied slowly. “If the vics don’t know what it is about, it doesn’t really make sense to send it, does it?”

Greg shook his head, looking at the envelope in his hand. “It doesn’t have a post stamp, so it’s probably been delivered by the person who wrote it,” he speculated. “It would make sense… so they’d be able to check out the house in advance and everything.”

Sara nodded.

“I’m going to dust the mailbox,” Greg said. “Maybe they touched it when they brought the letter.”

“Do that,” Sara agreed. “I’ll finish up here.”

Greg walked out, while Sara continued looking around the room, especially hoping to find a potential murder weapon. Then she spent a good while on collecting prints, hardly realizing the time moving on.

Greg was still not back and Sara started to wonder what took him so long to collect prints from a single mailbox and she doubted he had taken her declaration to finish up on the scene too literally and had taken off. He would not leave without her.

Sealing the last evidence bag and placing it into her kit, Sara walked out of the house into the darkness outside. Parked at the pavement was the patrol car of the officers who were securing the scene. The mailbox stood lonely and no Greg was in sight.

Sara frowned, walking around the house, when she finally saw Greg in the shine of her flashlight. He seemed to be stuck halfway in a bush, kneeling on the ground, only his legs and lower torso being visible. He moved back slightly, making indecipherable sounds.

“Greg, what are you doing?” Sara called, moving up to him quickly.

Greg came some more out of the plants, cursing lightly.

“I’m trying to take pictures,” she could hear him saying, standing next to his legs by now.

“Of what?” she wanted to know, tapping him on the back so that he flinched briefly in surprise.

“Of very possible the murder weapon,” Greg returned, moving back in full now, carefully trying to avoid being scratched by the plant. He was finally completely in front of Sara, holding his camera, and Sara could see that small branches and leaves had been caught in his hair. She smiled.

“And you have to stick your head in there to take a pic?” she questioned, pointing at the bush.

Greg was busy getting the leaves out of his hair. “It was kinda difficult to keep the branches aside and hold the camera at the same time.”

“You could’ve called me,” Sara told him, helping him picking plant parts out of his hair. When they were done, she brushed through it with her hand once, smiling at the result.

“You were busy,” Greg replied now to her remark.

Sara took her flashlight and let it shine where Greg had been in and saw a long metal rod lying in there and when she looked closer she thought she could make out a mixture of blood and hair at one end of it.

“I told you,” Greg noted, picking up his camera and standing up from his crouched down position. Sara stood up as well.

“You still have to get it out of there, you know,” she reminded him. Greg sighed and kneeled down again. Sara watched him crabbing into the plants again, coming out soon, holding the rod in his gloved hands.

Sara went to get a large bag for it, and Greg followed her before long.

“Did you find anything on the mailbox?” Sara asked once they had bagged it.

Greg nodded. “Got some prints. They’re in my kit.”

“Okay,” Sara smiled at his once again tousled look.

Greg grimaced. “Are you enjoying yourself? My good looks are certainly even enhanced by these bits of wild nature.”

He brushed through his hair but did not take care of removing any of the sticks in it. Sara came close to him and picked out some small leaves again.

“You need a shower, Greg.”

TBC
 
Chapter 3: Curiosity

“Hmm, I come at the perfect time I see,” Nick remarked gladly, when he walked into the break room, seeing Greg handing Sara a cup of hot coffee. Greg looked at him with playfully raised eyebrows, smirking.

“Well, I’ll have to see if I’m able to spare some for you…” he offered. Nick looked at him with a fixed gaze, and Greg turned to Sara, smiling.

“Do you think we should share with Nick here?” he asked her.

Sara smiled, taking a sip of Greg’s good, hot coffee. “I guess.”

“I have even something to trade,” Nick announced, waving with a folder. Greg looked up excitedly.

“Results from prints?” he questioned, forgetting about the coffee for a moment. Nick nodded, sitting down at the table and opening the folder, while Greg remembered the coffee and walked over to the machine again to fill a cup for Nick.

“Mandy was able to match prints you got from your scene last night to some partials of another case, a homicide as well,” Nick told them. Greg glanced at him curiously, walking over to the table with two cups in his hands, concentrating to make sure the hot liquid stayed where it was.

“Which one?” he wanted to know, setting the cups on the table carefully, moving then on the chair next to Sara and pulling one of the cups towards himself.

“The Mitchell case… drowned in his bath tub,” Nick replied, looking at the paper in front of him.

“Only this one?” Greg inquired further, leaning back.

Nick nodded again. “Yeah, how much more do you want?“

Greg glanced at Sara, thinking of the odd findings they had made at both scenes.

“Well, I thought it might be connected to that one shooting case, too.”

His Texan friend frowned. “How did you get the idea? I mean, even a link between a drowning and an assault where the vic was hit with a rod over the head is… unusual.”

Greg looked at Sara again. He did not want Nick laughing at him, so he was not willing to tell him about what they had found at the crime scenes.

“We think each of the victims received a warning,” Sara stated, and Nick turned to her, looking questioningly. “It’s possible there are more cases, since it’s not very obvious, easy to miss…” Sara trailed off.

“What is it?” Nick wanted to know. Greg left the room without a word, and Nick could see him walking quickly down the hallway, while Sara leaned back, drinking the rest of her coffee.

“He could’ve just told me, you know,” Nick remarked to her.

Sara smiled. “He wants to show you.”

“What is it? I mean, if they got some letter or something, I would’ve believed it anyway… there’re people out there.”

Sara put her empty cup onto the table, still smiling at Nick. “He doesn’t want you to think he’s kidding.”

Nick looked as if he suspected that Sara was kidding with him now.

“So, you two have some physic-paranormal thing going on now, reading each other’s minds?” he questioned.

Sara laughed. “No,” she replied shortly. When Nick lifted his eyebrows, she added, “I just know him.” She smiled. “And he told me earlier that you’d think he’s joking around.”

“Who’s joking?” they could hear Greg asking from the door of the break room. He was holding several folders in his hand. He swung over to them and placed the folders in front of Nick onto the table. He opened one of them, revealing crime scene pictures and Nick noticed from the date on the photos that it had to be Sara’s and Greg’s case from the previous night.

“So, what is it?” Nick questioned, looking at the pictures, wondering what Greg wanted to show him. Greg pointed at one photo and Nick leaned forward to look closer. “A card?” he asked.

“A death card,” replied Greg emphasizing, dropping back onto the chair next to Sara.

Nick grimaced, looking at her. “I thought there isn’t anything paranormal going on.”

Greg looked confused, but Sara brushed it off with a shake of her head.

“We think it’s some kind of warning because other victims got one, too,” she explained.

“Which?”

“The drowning case,” Sara replied and Greg opened another folder synchronically, showing Nick more pictures. “And a shooting, but there might be more,” Sara continued.

“What’s with those partials you mentioned?” Greg wanted to know.

“Mandy’s working on it.”

************************************************************************

Later at night Greg and Nick were sorting through the evidence of several of Nick’s cases, looking for any more cards or similar potential warnings in the possessions of the victims, while Sara was out on another scene. They had not been successful so far, and Greg had just closed the last box he had brought, watching Nick looking through his box now.

“Nothing,” Nick stated finally, putting the lid on the evidence box in front of him. He shoved the box some inches away, leaning back and turning to Greg. “So, how’s your plan going?” he asked him, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Slowly,” his friend replied, grinning sheepishly. “I haven’t really mustered up the courage yet…” he shrugged.

“If you need any help…“ Nick offered and Greg was surprised that the Texan was not teasing him about his lack of courage; on the other hand Greg was sure that Nick knew how serious this was for the younger man.

“Thanks, but I guess I have to do this alone,” he turned down Nick’s offer.

At this moment, Nick’s pager went off, along with Greg’s one. Both of them checked, but it was Nick who spoke first.

“Mandy, she’s got a match,” he told Greg who nodded.

“Yeah, got the same message.“

He moved out of the room, Nick following him. Few seconds later both men entered the prints lab where Mandy was already waiting for them.

“Hey,” she greeted them. “That was quick.”

Greg leaned next to her, looking at the screen in front of them.

“What do you have?”

“A name,” the print tech replied in the manner Greg and Nick had been hoping for.

*****************************************************************************

Some hours later Greg sank into his pillows exhaustedly. Sara was already sleeping soundly beside him which surprised him mildly. She must have been really tired that she had not waited for him. Greg was okay with it, since he had not really known how long it would take him until he would arrive home anyway.

After Mandy had found the match, they had informed Brass in no time, who had sent somebody out to bring their suspect in, meaning for both Nick and Greg that they had to stay longer to assist with the interrogation. Sara had been working on those cases as well, but as she had been out on a scene at that time, Greg had called her to tell her about the development, but also that she could go home as soon as she was finished with her scene.

She had not been very reluctant which had told Greg already then that she was very tired, and he had been proved right when he had finally arrived home, finding her sleeping tightly.

He closed his eyes as well, but his thoughts were wandering back to work anyway. They had their suspect arrested and the question was whether their cases were closed with that or not. The evidence against the man was not overwhelming but sufficient. One thing they had no idea about though, was his motive for killing those people. He had not been talking during the interrogation.

Knowing his motive would maybe help connecting him to other cases, and Greg was pretty sure he was involved in more. Greg remembered what Sara had said about this topic some days ago.

Thinking of her, he smiled, moving closer to her sleeping form. She smelled good; she had probably taken a shower before going to bed, as he took in the scent of her shampoo.

He still wondered about the tarot cards they had found at several crime scenes. He had asked after them during the interrogation but it had not caused their suspect to tell them anything more.

Greg could not even be sure that they were not a coincidence. What if they had just found them because they had paid attention to it after Greg had discovered them in the belongings of two victims? After all, they could go and look for green socks at all their crime scenes and probably find some at a few places, Greg thought. It still would not mean that those cases were connected. On the other hand, Greg admitted to himself, somewhat distracted by Sara’s touch, it was not like any of their victims had received those socks in an envelope addressed to them.

Fully distracted now, Greg’s thoughts wandered to those not-work-related things he and Nick had been talking about.

TBC
 
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