Troubled Times (Sara/Greg)

[gregsandersfan]

A/N: Kinda forgot to post this...


Chapter 4: Findings

When Sara woke up, she rolled to her other side, expecting to find Greg sleeping there. The bed was empty though. Sara frowned, remembering that she had gone to bed in the morning, too tired to even wait for Greg. Now she wondered if he had been home to sleep at all.

She propped herself onto her arms, stretching to look over the edge of the bed on the other side, grinning slightly then. Greg’s worn socks and the shirt he had been wearing the previous night were spread over the floor. This was sufficient evidence for his presence. Sara smiled, climbing out of bed. Walking out of the bed room, she looked around for Greg and finally saw him coming out of the bathroom, his hair tousled and wet.

“Without your dirty laundry there, I wouldn’t have even noticed you were here,” she said, raising her eyebrows, but smiling.

Greg grinned. “I was sleeping next to you. I can’t believe you didn’t notice me.” He walked over to her and kissed her lightly.

“Wake-up kiss.”

“I’m awake.” Sara smiled.

Greg swung an arm around her. “You’ll be even more awake very soon, for Greg’s already been busy this afternoon,” he announced, directing her to the kitchen. Sara smirked, dropping down on a chair, while Greg switched off the coffee machine.

“Now I know why I’m living together with you,” she joked, watching him filling two cups. Greg brought them over to the small table, putting them down.

“I hope you have some more reasons,” he said, hovering close to her. Sara looked as if she was thinking about it.

“We work together,” she said finally, looking at him earnestly.

“What does that have to do with it?” Greg wanted to know, sitting down as well. Sara took a sip from her coffee.

“Well, it gives us more time to discuss cases,” she shrugged, knowing that he’d know she was not meaning it serious. “Speaking of that,” she added, “what about the suspect they brought in this morning?”

Greg groaned quietly. “Do we have to discuss work right now?”

Sara lifted her eyebrows. “It’s what we do.”

Greg sighed, and Sara gave him a smile. “I was just joking,” she assured him. She leaned over the table, kissing him. “I don’t want to talk about work right now either.”

Greg nodded, but after Sara had drawn back from him, he leaned onto the table, looking excited.

“We nailed him though! Evidence is not like overwhelming, but it’s enough.”

Sara smiled lightly, drinking more of her coffee. “Good. Did he talk in interrogation?”

Greg shook his head. “Nope.”

“Motive?” Sara questioned.

He shrugged. “No idea.”

Sara mirrored his gesture. “Well, we don’t need it if the evidence is sufficient.”

“Actually, we could need it to connect him to that shooting where such a card turned up as well. And didn’t you lately say it’s better if we know the motive?” Greg rambled, running his hand through his still tousled hair that seemed to be dry by now.

“We don’t have him for that shooting?” Sara asked, ignoring Greg’s question. He shook his head. Sara leaned back thoughtfully.

Greg sighed. “Now we’re talking about work again.”

“You started it,” Sara reminded him, but with a smile.

“We could need some free days,” Greg said suddenly. “Together,” he added. “Go somewhere…”

Sara nodded. “I haven’t been out of Vegas since I was in Utah…” She looked at Greg, gauging his mood, as well as his thoughts.

“Well, I was in Florida at that time… involuntarily.” He grimaced.

Sara looked down at the table. She did not like remembering what had happened back then. She shoved those thoughts away, looking up again and smiling at Greg.

“So where would you like to go?” she asked, trying to bring back a light mood.

Greg shrugged. “Not very far away.”

Sara smirked. “You don’t want to spend more time in the car than playing.”

Greg grinned back at her.

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

Sara found Greg leaning over long lists with small printed numbers, when she entered the room at the lab several hours later. She was just back from a crime scene and Greg looked up and smiled at her, when he noticed her presence.

“Hey,” he greeted her lightly.

“Found anything?” she questioned, glancing over the wide spread papers on the table.

“Nope,” Greg replied, shrugging, some frustration shining through his expression. “He didn’t call the victim once. At least not from his own phone. There’s no connection I can find here,” he said, pointing towards the papers which were phone records as Sara had recognized by now.

“You haven’t closed the case?” she asked, looking down at Greg now.

Greg rubbed his forehead. “We don’t have him for the shooting and if we find the connection to the victim, find the motive, we could be able to nail him on that one, too.”

Sara looked thoughtful. “And if it was somebody else?” she considered.

“The card?” Greg suggested.

“Could be anything,” Sara said, looking over the phone records again.

Greg stood up. “We’ve got a warrant for his bank records as well, so we’ll see if there’s something,” he said hopefully, glancing at the papers as well that he had been looking over the past hour, before his gaze went back to Sara.

“Did you ask Grissom about the vacation?” he wanted to know. Sara smiled, reaching out to run her hand through his hair.

“Not yet,” she replied, turning away from him then. “Tell me if you get anything out of that,” she asked him, pointing towards the papers again.

“Sure,” Greg nodded, before Sara left.

Half an hour later Greg went to the reception to get the records that had been sent over by the bank of that their suspect was a customer. Greg picked up the large envelope and his gaze fell on another, smaller letter that was lying there, too. He looked at it curiously and saw his name written on it. He picked it up as well, turning it around, wondering. There was no return address on it. Greg shrugged and made his way back to the room he had come from, taking both envelopes with him.

When he walked into the room he found Sara sitting there, looking over some kind of papers as well.

“I thought I keep you company,” she told him as an explanation, before he had even asked.

“I like that,” Greg said, sitting down opposite of Sara and starting to open the envelope from the bank. It did not contain many sheets and Greg figured that he would have finished looking over these in little time.

He watched Sara going over her papers concentrated for a few seconds before he started on his own. There did not seem to be anything unusual on the first sheets and Greg’s hope on finding a connection or a motive diminished. His attention swayed off to the second envelope that was lying next to him. He wondered if it was anything case-related, or work-related at all for that matter. His curiosity grew and he almost smiled when he considered that it was some surprise from Sara. It was not her handwriting on the letter though and Greg forced his attention back to the bank records.

Sara had noticed that Greg kept glancing at the envelope that he had placed onto the table next to him. She caught herself thinking about what it could be that made Greg looking at it again and again. Maybe it was just curiousness; this would be typical for him. Or maybe it was nervousness. Maybe it was some kind of surprise for her that he had brought with him and Sara smiled slightly, but scolded herself then for thinking about that, focusing on her case again.

It was not much later when she saw Greg finally picking up the letter. He opened it carefully and looked into it, while Sara pretended to be working. Greg’s expression remained unchanged at first and Sara was not able to see what was in the envelope that he was holding.

He put it down suddenly and leaned quickly over the papers he had been working on earlier. Sara frowned, still wondering what kind of letter Greg was having there, but telling herself to limit her curiosity. She actually continued working now, but was soon distracted again when Greg made a sound of surprise.

“What’s up?” she wanted to know.

“Somebody got a huge sum here,” Greg explained, lifting his eyebrows.

“How much?”

“24,183 dollar,” Greg replied, his finger on the spot of the paper that showed the sum.

Sara looked slightly puzzled. “Odd number.”

Greg nodded. “Yeah. If you paid somebody to kill someone, would you pay him 24,183?”

“Uh…” Sara looked at him.

“I know you wouldn’t pay somebody to kill someone,” Greg clarified quickly,” I meant-“

“I know, Greg. I was just thinking,” Sara shook her head, frowning, but slightly amused. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s a valid reason for the sum.”

“The subject’s only a combo of letters and numbers. Doesn’t tell us anything,” Greg stated. “The date’s one day after the murder though, so it fits…” He looked at Sara, grimacing slightly confused and she returned his expression.

TBC

 

[catey1234]

Good job! Nice balance of work and personal life. Intriguing case. Can't believe I haven't read it before, and now can't wait for an update.

 

[hollie]

Nice updates, I haven't read this story in awhile.

But i'm terrified about what was in that envelope.

 

[gregsandersfan]

A/N: Oh, it’s really been a while since I updated this. I put the university stuff aside for a bit, deciding to write for a change. Well, write fics that is because my life feels right now like a sequence of writing papers. lol

Here we go, hope you enjoy!


Chapter 5: Interruptions

Greg slipped the envelope into an evidence bag when Sara did not look. He would check it out later, even though it couldn’t be…

He had seen that Sara had been paying attention to it. There was no need to worry her about it though. There was not even a need to worry himself. They had the guy. He was in jail. There was no way he could have sent this… even if he had, there was no way he could do anything to him… it wasn’t a warning, it wasn’t a sign, it was not more than a bad joke, whoever had sent it.

On the other hand, Greg started to wonder how anybody else could even know about the cards so that they would be able to pull off such a bad joke. The perp was sitting in jail.

Was it a copycat? They had not let anything out to the media, and certainly nothing about the cards they had found.

Greg did not have much more time to ponder about it because only few minutes later Catherine walked in jauntily.

“Hey, are you two up for a bit of a ride?” she asked smiling, waving a slip of paper. “I have an assignment out there…”

A grin spread over Greg’s face. “Sure.” He was definitely keen to get out of the lab. Looking through those papers had been tiresome at its best.

Catherine smirked. “Well, I could have told you to take it anyway.”

“I know,” Greg winked, looking at Sara, who stood up slowly. She packed the papers she had been working on together, while Greg took the slip of paper from Catherine.

“Enjoy yourselves,” she said, before leaving them alone again. Greg looked at Sara expectantly.

“I guess you’re driving?” he asked.

Sara smirked, but did not say anything.

“I figured.” He walked after her out of the room, stepping then up beside her. “It will take quite a while until we’re out there. We’ll never be done by the time shift’s regularly over…”

“And?” Sara questioned, raising her eyebrows. “What would be news there?”

“Nothing,” Greg shrugged, unsure what he had actually wanted to say. Well, it did not really matter if their shift took a bit longer once again. A lot of the time he would be basically doing a road trip with Sara which was great by its own.

When they were a fair distance away from the room where they had been working earlier, Sara suddenly stopped. It was only now that Greg caught sight of the evidence bag in her hand and remembered what he had forgotten. He had left it lying around. Sara’s expression was questioning when she held out the bag.

“You forgot this,” she said simply. She let her hand drop then so that Greg did not even try to actually take the evidence bag from her. “What is this?” she wanted to know, glancing at him, before looking closer at the bag. “It’s not even labeled…” she trailed off. “Greg…”

She opened the bag and her eyes narrowed when she looked into it. Greg could make out a hint of worry both in her expression and voice, what was what he had actually tried to avoid.

“Where did you get this?” she asked.

“Letter I got earlier,” he replied evasively.

“And you didn’t think it worth mentioning?” Sara returned with some sharpness in her voice now which was mainly caused by her worry as Greg knew.

“Sara, this is rubbish and you know that. The perp’s in jail. He can’t send out any of those cards anymore. He can’t kill anyone anymore.”

“Why did you get one then? What if we got the wrong guy after all?” Sara questioned.

“We can take this to Mandy to have a look at it. Maybe she’ll find some prints, but besides that? What am I supposed to do? There may be somebody playing a very bad joke… I can’t go and let Brass set some people following me around just because somebody thought it funny to send me a tarot card,” Greg rambled.

Sara said nothing. Instead she looked at him thoughtfully. “Okay,” she nodded finally. “Let’s take this to Mandy,” she agreed, lifting the bag in her hand. “But if you notice anything that’s off, you’ll tell somebody, okay?”

“Okay,” Greg nodded as well. “Come on, there’s a scene to process. We can’t put everything on hold because of this.”

Sara nodded slightly, not looking convinced though.

Some minutes later both of them were in the car and Sara drove them out of the city which went comparatively fast at that time of the night, or very early morning.

Greg popped open a plastic bottle, gulping down a quantity of water. “Want something?” he asked Sara next to him.

She shook her head. “No, I’ve got my own.”

“You should drink something,” Greg told her between two more large gulps. “It will get warm pretty quickly, and we can’t drink anything once we’re processing the scene.”

“I know,” Sara returned. “Don’t worry about me.” She lifted her eyebrows when Greg emptied the last bit of the small bottle. “And don’t complain if you have to pee.”

Greg laughed, while Sara accelerated now that they were out of the city. The drive went over faster than Greg would have liked. He quite enjoyed just sitting in the car with Sara, letting her drive, despite his occasional arguing about it. It was relaxing and usually gave him a feeling of calmness before they would enter yet another crime scene.

There was no sign of the sun yet, when they got off the car. Greg took in the cool morning air when he stepped onto the desert ground, turning around to see Sara dimly in the shine of the light that came over from the crime scene. She was wearing her CSI vest with a long-armed shirt underneath. Greg himself had only a T-Shirt that was almost a bit too cool for this time of the night, but he knew that the temperature would rise very soon.

Greg glanced over to the crime scene but was not able to see anything. Sara was already retrieving her kit out of the trunk in the meantime and Greg hasted to do so as well when he noticed her looking at him, waiting. He was about to slam down the lid of the trunk, when he caught sight of something and remembered that it would possibly become a very hot shift out here. Quickly putting on his vest, he grabbed two base-caps, putting one on his head, carrying the other one over to where Sara was looking through her kit and putting it on her head with a swift motion.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked.

“Just making sure your pretty head isn’t grilled by the sun,” Greg winked.

“Greg, there’s no sun,” Sara argued, touching and moving the cap for a second, but leaving it on her head, looking at Greg.

“Not yet,” he shrugged. “But I can promise you that the sun’s going to rise today…”

“Go figure,” Sara returned, but with a smile. “Do you have everything you need now?”

Greg looked around. “When I think about it…” he said slowly, walking back to the trunk of the car that was still open. He retrieved another bottle of water, opening it quickly, relishing more of the cool liquid, knowing he would not be able to drink anything once they were processing the scene. It was okay not to eat anything for a few hours but not drinking anything out here was a whole other thing. When he had emptied half of the water, he put the small bottle into his kit, just in case, before he made his way back to the still waiting Sara.

Soon they were both absorbed in their work, hardly noticing what was happening around them.

Greg noticed that it had indeed been a very good idea to drink some water before he had started working here for he could feel the upcoming heat already now.

“Okay, are you ready for a bit of a walk?” Sara asked suddenly, when Greg was staring into the distance where he knew the sun would go up soon. It was not normal that it was already so warm when the sun had not even risen, he thought bemusedly.

“What?”

“I asked if you’re up for a bit of a walk,” Sara repeated patiently. “We need to find out where the guy came from,” she explained, indicating the body, “got to follow the blood.”

Greg nodded, looking at the stabbing victim and then at the thin line of blood drops leading away, or rather to, the body. “Okay. Who takes the markers?” he asked eagerly.

Sara grimaced, rolling her eyes at the same time and letting out a small chuckle. “Take them.”

Greg grabbed a bag of markers, guessing they would need quite a few of them and added one next to a blood drop not very far away from the body. Sara photographed both and Greg put down another marker, only a foot away from the last one.

The distances between the markers grew larger but with a bit of searching they found a new trace of blood again and again. Greg was still placing markers onto the desert ground while Sara took pictures of the markers and the blood which became worse and worse visible.

At marker 36 Greg grew bored, wondering how long the man had actually been bleeding. His wounds had not seemed to be very deep so he had probably lasted for quite a while before he had died of exsanguinations.

At marker 44 Greg decided that it was way too hot for the early morning hours. It distracted him and he found himself less and less able to focus on looking for more traces of blood. He would not have thought that he had swallowed one and half a bottle of water not very long ago, for his mouth was just as dry as the desert. He glanced at Sara who seemed to be doing way better and he wondered what was wrong with him. What would he be doing if it was actually noon and the heat would be glazing down on them?

When he thought about it, it was definitely not normal. It should be cool right now. He swallowed which was just another uncomfortable action, for no saliva was left in his mouth.

“Greg?”

He stared at a spot on the ground, feeling as if he was going to be sick any moment now.

“Greg?”

It took a third call until he finally looked up and answered. “Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” Sara asked him softly.

“Nothing,” Greg replied at first. “It’s hot,” he added then.

Sara frowned. “It’s not. It’s almost chilly actually,” she contradicted him. “Are you feeling alright?”

Greg did not respond. He was staring at marker number 44 now, wondering how he had managed to walk up to it, for he did not think he would be able to walk to 45, or even only back to 43. His legs had become fixed to the spot where he was standing as it seemed.

“Greg?”

He trembled, proving Sara right now. It was chilly. More than chilly. He could not understand why he had felt so hot before. It was cold, so cold. His legs were not the only thing that was heavy. His head had just joined the club.

“Greg, what’s wrong?”

He needed to sit down. But he was in the desert. Just for a bit. He needed to work a scene. He had to sit down, just for a moment.

Greg’s contemplation was interrupted, when he sacked down on the ground.

TBC

 

[catey1234]

Wow, what a chapter. I wonder if there was something on the card that caused this reaction? Interesting and intriguing. Update again soon, I hope!

 

[gregsandersfan]

Chapter 6: Complications

Greg had hardly noticed that he had fallen, let alone that he had landed hard. He was just busy reminding himself to keep breathing. Opening his eyes, he saw Sara looking down at him in shock.

“Greg, what’s wrong? What’s wrong with you?” she asked urgently, her hand touching his cheek.

“I don’t know,” he replied quietly, trembling, but trying to sit up. Sara helped him until he was in a sitting position. “I felt so hot.” He tried to stand up, but realized that his legs would not support him at all. Sara’s hand moved to his forehead.

“You’re really hot.”

Greg attempted something like a smile. “I like to hear you saying that.” Her hand felt cold against his forehead, just like everything was feeling cold now.

She chuckled lightly, but he could still hear the worry in her voice when she said, “I’ll call for help.” He tried to nod, but somehow lifting his head seemed too much of an effort right now. He could hear Sara talking but she was not speaking to him, so he figured she was calling for help. His ears were clearly betraying him. Or maybe it was blood rushing in them that made the noise that deafened all other sounds.

He could feel Sara’s hand on his forehead again. She said something to him and he opened his eyes. He had not even noticed he had closed them again.

“What?” he coughed.

“Do you have any idea what’s wrong with you? How long have you been feeling like this?” she wanted to know.

He shook his head. “No idea. I was feeling alright back at the lab. When we came here, too, I think.” Sara looked thoughtful.

“Help will come soon,” she said finally. He saw that she took off her vest and the jersey she was wearing underneath, which he had wrongfully identified as a long shirt earlier. She put her vest back on and placed the jersey over him. He was glad for the tiny piece of warmth this was giving him, but he was worried that she would get cold. Then he remembered that it was apparently not that cold, it only felt like that to him. He groaned.

“Greg?”

“Thanks for the jacket,” he said quietly.

She did not respond.

“Is somebody coming?” Greg asked.

“Soon.” She did not sound convinced.

“Maybe you should go back to the scene and show them the way,” he suggested. It would probably bring them here faster. He shuddered.

“I don’t want to leave you alone,” she refused, taking his hand in hers. Greg smiled, halfway trying to prop himself up, if only to show her that he was not as bad off as she seemed to think. This small movement made his world start to swim though, so he laid back down.

“Come on, it’s not that far,” he tried to encourage her nevertheless. “Half a mile maybe.” It could not be more, if he remembered the walk from the scene right. It had taken them a long while until here, but that was because they had walked very slowly, looking for traces and had stopped often to take pictures. “You’d be back in no time.” He trembled more than before and felt like he was going to throw up. As quickly as he could he moved to his side, taking Sara in surprise. It was unnecessary though, for his stomach did not seem to contain anything that wanted out, and he tried to remember when he had eaten the last time.

Greg did not know how long he was lying there. He did not even know if he was conscious all the time, for the world had not stopped swimming and black spots danced in front of his eyes again and again, so that he shut them finally unnerved.

He groaned, and could feel Sara running her hand through his hair, saying something to him which he figured was supposed to be soothing. Why was she still here? She should have gone to make sure that this promised help finally found them. Did she want him to die out here?

If he had not already been trembling so hard, both from the coldness he felt, and whatever made him feel so sick, he would have shuddered even more, for it was the first time that he had actually had this thought. Of course, Sara did not want him to die out here; it was just a frustrated thought due to her still staying with him, but what if he was really going to die? Maybe Sara thought that he would die and did not want to leave him to go for help because of that, either because she did not think he could be helped anymore or because she did not want to risk leaving and coming back finding him dead, or maybe both.

Once again he could feel her taking his hand, this time more firmly than before.

“You’re going to be alright,” she tried to assure him. Greg wondered if she was really that optimistic.

“I’ll just trust that you’re right,” he said quietly. He opened his eyes again to look at her and saw her nodding. It had grown light by now.

“Do you want to drink something?” she asked. “There’s something in your kit, isn’t there?”

Greg nodded to the second question, but before he could refuse that he actually wanted something, Sara had reached out to open his kit and take out the half full bottle of water he had put there earlier.

“I don’t want it,” he said. ”Take it,” he told her. “I worry that you don’t drink enough.” He was not sure how serious or non-serious he had meant this, but Sara chucked lightly.

“I’ll take a sip, if you take one,” she suggested.

“Okay.”

Sara opened the bottle, taking a careful sip. Then she held the bottle to Greg’s mouth, letting him drink a bit. He had to admit that it actually felt good, even though he did not feel like eating or drinking anything.

“I feel like a little kid,” he told her. “One sip for Sara, one sip for Greg.” He could see her smiling at this.

“What about another one?” she held up the bottle the content of which had not diminished very much.

“Aren’t you afraid I have some bad contagious disease?” Greg asked, meaning it serious this time, even though he was asking in a light tone.

She did not answer his question, but took a big gulp from the bottle this time, before she prompted him to drink more. Finally she emptied the rest of the water, putting the bottle then back into the kit. Greg laughed inwardly that he had thought for a moment that she would trash the bottle in the desert. It would have been very much unlike her.

Then he squirmed, for his insides protested heavily. He tried to control his breathing, while he saw Sara standing up next to him.

“Greg, they’re coming.”

“About time,” he brought out, suppressing any vulgar language.

He never really remembered the ambulance actually arriving and neither could he recollect being moved into the vehicle, but he was pretty sure that they had just driven off when he eventually lost consciousness.

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

Sara had been relieved when help had finally arrived. She had contemplated walking back to their crime scene all the time, but had not wanted to leave Greg alone. She had been scared, had felt alone for she seemed to be the only one who could help Greg, and yet couldn’t help him at all at the same time.

She had not liked that he had lost consciousness in the ambulance but she had been assured quickly that the paramedics were working on it. The ride to the hospital seemed to go over in no time, or maybe it just felt like that afterwards, now that Sara was waiting at the hospital and time seemed to stretch endlessly.

While she stared at the wall, almost ready to count anything on it, she also started wondering again what exactly had happened. She could not imagine that Greg had fallen ill all by himself so suddenly. He had seemed alright during the night. Also the heaviness of it puzzled and scared her. She could not imagine how they would have done it, but…

This could not be the case. Maybe the card had been meant as warning indeed, but Sara had no idea how they could have done it. Poisoned Greg.

It was the most logical explanation that came to her mind. It would explain his sudden illness.

Sara bit her lip, rubbing her eyes to wipe away the tears that had threatened to fall. Greg was going to be alright. If he had indeed been poisoned, they would certainly know of a way to treat him. She had not been able to give them any information about what had happened with Greg, but she was sure the doctors would figure out what Greg had been poisoned with. And then they would be able to help him.

Sara felt sick at the thought that it was maybe not that easy.

TBC

 

[catey1234]

Hmm, interesting chapter. Liked how Sara wouldn't leave Greg, and that she's figuring out he might have been poisoned. Can't wait for the next chapter.

 

[gregsandersfan]

Chapter 7: Spreading

Sara was tired. She knew that she should have tried getting some rest. Sitting and waiting in the hospital had been some kind of rest after all. Maybe not, considering her stress level, but she had not been doing anything. This was also why she had left, when she had learned that Greg would be okay, but that they were still working on him and that she should come back later.

Sara’s determination to find out what had happened was strengthened, now that it was no longer clouded by fear. She had told the hospital staff that they needed to carefully bag anything that would help to determine what had caused Greg’s illness, if it was not a natural disease after all, so that they would have the evidence later on. After she had called Grissom to give him a heads-up, she had set off to the lab, taking any of Greg’s stuff she had with her.

If it was not a natural disease, something else had caused Greg’s condition. Most likely he had been poisoned. The question was how it had happened and Sara was pondering about it on her way back to the lab.

He could have inhaled something. This was not likely though. She had been around him all night, both in the lab and in the car later on. If anything had been in the air there she would have been affected as well. He could have eaten or drunk something. As far as Sara could tell, he had not eaten anything since the beginning of their shift though. Of course, it could have been a poison that acted slowly. Sara remembered clearly though that Greg had drunk water before they had started working the scene. It could not have been that either though, since she had had some of the water as well.

The poison could also have entered his body through skin contact. What had he touched? He had worn gloves all the time at the scene. Of course, he had not worn any while they had been in the car but Sara could not imagine that it had been anything in there. Slowly, a certain envelope entered Sara’s mind. Had Greg touched the contents? She did not think so. He had treated it as evidence, so he had certainly used gloves, if he had touched the card inside at all. What if he had not? He could have touched it unwittingly, in the initial surprise of seeing it. She could imagine some substances that would cause Greg’s symptoms… on the other hand, he probably would not be alive anymore, if it had been what Sara had in mind.

She rubbed her forehead, pulling finally into the street were the lab was. She did not feel all too well thinking about Greg’s condition, even though she had been assured he would be alright most likely. Most likely, that was certainly her problem.

She looked at her watch, surprised that it was still so early in the day. Waiting at the hospital had felt like an eternity.

Sara decided to let anything out of Greg’s kit be analyzed. They needed to know what had been the cause. They needed to catch whoever had done this. It did not even enter Sara’s mind that it might have been an accident. By now she was taking the “warning” he had received earlier very seriously. She rolled up her sleeves, before she put on gloves to retrieve anything from Greg’s kit. She had always thought the lab’s air conditioning was working well.

Before long, she also made her way into the print lab, hoping to still find Mandy there. The lab tech was actually still leaning over a microscope.

“Hey, did you get anything from the envelope Greg brought you earlier?” Sara wanted to know. Mandy looked up from her work.

“How is Greg doing?” she returned, not answering Sara’s question.

Sara smiled slightly. “I didn’t think it had traveled that fast,” she told the lab tech. “He’ll be alright.”

“That’s good,” Mandy stated.

“Yeah,” Sara nodded, returning to business then. “And I want to find out who did this. I think he was poisoned, but I still have to find out how. I wonder if anything was on the card that was in that envelope. Did you find any prints on it?”

Mandy had been listening intently, before she shook her head. “No prints on the card, only Greg’s on the envelope.” That meant that Greg had very likely not touched the card with bare hands, so he could not have been contaminated that way. Maybe it was on the envelope and the card was only a red herring.

“I need to get it to trace,” Sara said thoughtfully. Mandy looked at the evidence bag that contained the envelope, before she glanced at Sara.

“You might want to use gloves, just in case,” she suggested.

Sara nodded. “Alright.” After she had put on a pair of gloves, Mandy handed her the evidence bag and Sara hurried to take it to the trace lab.

“Your boredom is over,” she greeted Hodges, who seemed to be surfing the internet, clicking to another page quickly, when he noticed Sara.

“That’s… good,” he responded, nodding.

Sara handed him the evidence bag. “Be careful with this.”

“I’m always careful,” Hodges pointed out.

“Check for anything that could cause a contact poisoning,” Sara told him. “I’ll be right back with more,” she promised him, walking out of the trace lab in order to get everything she had found in Greg’s kit that could have been the cause.

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

When he opened his eyes slowly, Greg wondered what had hit him. He was overly aware of his whole body, which felt somehow distant from the outside world. When his vision had finally cleared, Greg tried to sit up carefully, despite lying quite comfortably, if you ignored the bad feeling that had consumed his whole body. He managed to prop himself against his pillow but this simple action resulted in a wave of nausea and Greg closed his eyes again, hoping for it to stop soon.

When it had sufficiently passed, Greg opened his eyes again, looking around in the hospital room that was deserted apart from him. Judging from the high stand of the sun outside of the window, it was about noon. Greg was not entirely sure but thought to remember that it had been short after sunrise that he had still been out in the desert with Sara. And speaking of Sara, where was she?

He looked now down at himself and noticed uneasily that a tube was coming out of his body and as far as he could see at least two IVs were attached to him. He tried to breathe calmly, telling himself that this was probably alright and would help him feel better. Well, he was already feeling better than out in the desert. He was not shivering anymore and the fact that he had regained consciousness was certainly an advantage, too.

Still, he needed an explanation what had happened, and what all this stuff sticking out of his body was supposed to be for. He also wanted to see Sara.

Greg hit the call button, waiting then impatiently for somebody to come. When a nurse walked in finally, he smiled at her broadly.

“Hey, I wondered if you could tell me what’s wrong with me,” he gestured to the tubes, “and I really want to know where Sara is,” he added, stretching his neck to look around her as if he would be able to see Sara through the open door in the corridor.

“Dr. Griffin is not sure yet what it was exactly but it was an orally ingested poison, most likely a salicylate.” When she saw Greg’s expression, she continued. “They got it out of your stomach. Activated carbon is doing wonders there, so no worries. We have to get it out of your blood, too, though, that’s why-“

“I’m not worried about me,” Greg interrupted her. “You said it was orally ingested?”

The nurse nodded and Greg leaned back, his mind racing. He had not eaten anything. But he had drunk. Water, lots of water.

“Was it in the water?” he questioned urgently.

The nurse looked puzzled. “We don’t know yet. Your labs will be back soon, so we’ll know what it was, but we won’t be able to tell you where it came from.” The crime lab would have to find that out. But Greg was afraid that he already knew the solution. He had not eaten or drunk anything else except for the water, and they had said that the poison had been orally ingested.

Sara had drunk some of the water, too. Later than he did.

“Where’s Sara? She’s the one who’d called for help. Has she been here?” Greg asked, almost ready to jump out of his hospital bed.

“I think she was here briefly, but she was told that it would be a while before she could talk to you, so she left.” The nurse seemed to wonder why Greg was agitated and he realized that his question had not explained what was going on.

“I need to call her,” he said firmly.

TBC

 

[gregsandersfan]

Chapter 8: Conditions

It gave Judy quite a jolt when she picked up the phone and it was Desert Palms hospital calling. She had heard about Greg and that the hospital was phoning the lab did not promise well. Judy suppressed these thoughts though, asking politely what she could do for the caller.

“We have an urgent message for Ms. Sara Sidle,” the female person on the other side of the line replied.

Judy swallowed. So it was indeed about Greg? She hoped that he was doing okay, but such a call let her fear the worst.

“I can connect you to Ms. Sidle’s cell phone,” she offered.

“Yes, thank you.”

Judy would have liked to ask the other woman what was wrong with Greg that they would call Sara so urgently, but she knew that it was not her place to question that now.

“Please hold on a minute,” she said and hit the key that would connect the caller to Sara’s phone, hoping Sara would pick up.

While she heard the ringing sounds, Judy remembered that she would be able to leave soon when day shift receptionist arrived, even though she was not too keen on it before she knew about Greg. The thought about leaving vanished out if her mind though when Sara did not pick up after Judy had waited for a minute. Supressing a sigh, Judy reconnected to the hospital woman.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to reach Ms. Sidle.”

“I need to talk to her,” the other woman expressed firmly. “Do you know if she’s available at the crime lab?” she wanted to know.

Judy glanced around what she could see of the lab, but did not see Sara anywhere.

“She might be out on a scene,” she said carefully. Considering that it was nearly end of shift, it was rather late to go out on a scene, but this rule did not count for Sara anyway, and if there was a new case, it had to be worked anyway and Sara would be the type to take it. Judy could not remember Sara leaving though after she had arrived some hours ago, walking past Judy’s work place absent-mindedly.

“You need to find her,” the other woman told her. “She needs to go to the hospital because we have to assume that it was the water from their water bottles that caused Mr. Sanders condition.”

Judy was confused. It was indeed about Greg. She just did not understand what point the other woman was making with the water bottles. Unless… word has traveled that Greg had gotten very sick on a scene and a rumor had arisen that he had been poisoned although nothing had been confirmed so far.

The hospital thought it had been something in Greg’s water. And Sara had drunk it, too.

Judy rose from her chair. “I’m going to find her,” she promised the other woman. Maybe she should rather have said that she was going to look for her because she was not really sure that she would be successful. Judy hoped that Sara was still around. Otherwise somebody needed to go to her place and look there.

Judy wished she would find somebody else from Sara’s shift. But all other CSI’s were still out on scenes as far as she knew. She looked around in all labs and rooms, asking anybody she met if they had seen Sara. Mandy, who was on her way out, remembered having seen her about an hour ago and David Hodges seemed to have talked to her, too, but Judy was quick to retreat from the trace lab before the man could get deeper into his obnoxious conversations.

Judy also checked the locker room and listened for running water in the showers but there was none. The last place she decided to check was the restroom. Walking in there quietly, she looked at the cubicles and one of them was indeed shut. She could hear sounds coming out of it and she did not like these sounds at all.

“Sara?” she called. She did not get an answer at first, for the unpleasant sounds continued for some seconds before she heard a weak voice answering.

“Judy, is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Sara, the hospital just called and-“

“Is… ugh… is something wi-ugh-with Greg?” Sara brought out, a question that was followed by more unpleasant sounds and what Judy thought to recognize as a sob.

“They said you should go to the hospital quickly. They didn’t say anything about Greg. They only said that it was probably the water,” she told her what the hospital had said earlier.

“The water?” It was the sound of water running down the toilet that Judy heard next and she figured that Sara had just hit the rinsing, before the brunette emerged from the cubicle shaking.

Judy nodded. “That’s what they said.” At this moment, Sara started trembling even more and had to hold herself on the door of the cubicle she had been in. “I’m going to call an ambulance,” Judy decided, wishing she had sounded firmer, for she suspected that the brunette would argue against this decision.

“No,” Sara returned quickly. “I’m really… really not… could you drive me to the hospital please?” she asked.

Judy nodded promptly. “Of course.” Watching the shaking Sara, she asked, “Can you walk?” She had no idea how else she would get Sara to her car. She would have to find somebody to help her.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sara responded though. “It’s… not that bad.” The trembling of her hands did not convince Judy.

They made their way slowly out of the restroom and out of the lab, meeting several people in the hallway who asked if Sara was alright. Sara either mumbled that she was fine or replied quickly that she was just on her way to a doctor. Judy was glad when they were finally sitting in her car. She was afraid though that Sara would turn really ill during the drive. Sara had her head leaned against the window on the passenger’s side, maybe relishing the cool contrast of the pane with her heated skin, and Judy kept watching her nervously, but both Sara’s stomach as well as the trembling seemed to have calmed down for now.

“I should have known it,” the brunette said suddenly. Before Judy could answer anything, Sara continued. “I wasn’t feeling well when I was at the hospital earlier, but I thought it was just because I was worried so much about Greg.”

Sara sounded not as weak as before, so Judy hoped that the worst was already over. Still, she was glad when they arrived at Desert Palms.

Judy stayed in the background while Sara handled everything herself, explaining the staff at the reception the situation. This was also the moment when the crime lab receptionist had to realize that not everything was over yet after all, for Sara was gagging again and somebody rushed to her with a bag to catch the vomit.

Judy sat down, ready to wait, while Sara was walked off into another area. Some minutes later the crime lab receptionist rose, as she had decided to ask after Greg. Judy was even a bit surprised when a nurse actually showed her the room, and she walked in quietly, immediately met by Greg’s nervous look at her.

“Hey, Judy, what are you doing around here?” his expression changed into a smile, but she could hear the worry in his voice, even more so when he added, “Have you seen Sara?”

“I drove her here,” she answered, drawing a chair to Greg’s bed on which he was sitting propped up.

“Thank you,” Greg said, apparently relieved and Judy realized that he knew about Sara, the water and the hospital’s suspicion. “Is she doing okay?” he asked.

“She was not feeling very well,” Judy started carefully, “but I think she’ll be alright.” She sounded a bit insecure, but it seemed to be enough for Greg.

“Thanks.” He smiled at her broadly.

“You’re both very welcome,” the blonde woman replied gladly. “You really have a dangerous job, Greg,” she pointed out a moment later.

Greg rubbed his forehead. “Well, getting poisoned isn’t really in the job description.”

Judy chuckled quietly. They kept chatting for a while until the nurse Greg had talked to earlier came once again into his room. She was just supposed to check up on him, but he kept asking after Sara so she promised that she would try to get information.

When the nurse had left the room again, Greg looked at Judy. “I hope she’s okay.”

She nodded. “Me, too.”

A moment later another woman entered the room and Greg looked at her curiously. She smiled. “I’m here to get some of those tubes out of you.”

“Oh…” Greg uttered. “Already? Cool.”

The doctor laughed, approaching Greg. “Well, we’ll have to leave this one in until tomorrow,” she said, adding, “But I think you can get out of here tomorrow. You seem quite chipper.”

“Great,” Greg replied, his smile fading then. “Do you know what’s with Sara Sidle?” He had already asked the nurse, but maybe she got distracted somewhere…. and he just needed to know.

The doctor stopped in her task for a moment, looking at him friendly. “I’ll go and check in a minute,” she promised and Greg nodded.

“Thanks.”

TBC

 

[gregsandersfan]

A/N: Wow, I forgot about this story here. More chapters to come.

Chapter 9: Pleads

In the restroom Sara had turned really worried. It had not been just a passing feeling of nausea. This was serious, for her stomach did not want to calm down and her breathing and heartbeat had accelerated in a worrisome pace. She just did not know what to do. She was not even sure she would be able to move away from this toilet bowl.

She was too smart to wonder what was wrong though. It was not only Greg who had been poisoned today. She had gotten her piece of pie as well. It took her a few moments between vomiting to realize that it had to have been the water. She had drunken from it later than Greg had so she was feeling bad now, way later than him.

Somebody had put something into the water. Greg had received that card earlier. Sara could not believe that somebody had actually succeeded to make their threat true. They had not succeeded in killing Greg, and she was hoping they were not just succeeding in killing her, but they had tried quiet heftily.

Sara leaned over the toilet bowl again and tears were running down her cheeks by now. She wondered if somebody would come if she called. She did not think she would make it out of here and to the hospital alone. She guessed she needed to go there, even if she did not want to. She groaned. At least she could join Greg then.

She heard somebody coming into the restroom.

“Sara?”

Judy’s voice. “Judy, is that you?” Sara asked to make sure. Who knew, maybe this stuff in her system gave her hallucinations.

“Yeah, it’s me. Sara, the hospital just called and-“

“Is… ugh.” Another wave of nausea washed over her. “… is something wi-ugh-with Greg?” she brought out, before she had to puke again. What was if something was even more wrong with Greg? They could not have succeeded after all. She was not able to stop the sob that escaped her at that thought and at her miserable feeling.

“They said you should go to the hospital quickly. They didn’t say anything about Greg. They only said that it was probably the water,” Judy told her and Sara breathed out a sign of relief. They had not said anything about Greg. But no news was good news right now. She really needed to get to the hospital though.

“The water?” Sara tried to clarify. She had already suspected that. She needed to get out of here. She stood up weakly and flushed the toilet, before she walked out of the cubicle shaking.

Judy nodded. “That’s what they said.”

Sara did not feel well. She wondered how far she would actually make it, trembling as she was. She hated feeling this weak. She swayed and had to hold herself on the door of the cubicle.

“I’m going to call an ambulance,” Judy said.

“No,” Sara said. She was feeling bad, but she really did not want the agitation an ambulance would cause. And she really did not want to go in one. “I’m really… really not… could you drive me to the hospital please?” she asked.

Judy nodded. “Of course.”

Sara was still shaking and Judy asked her somewhat doubtingly if she could walk. And Sara decided that she simply had to be able to.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s… not that bad.” Sara trembled.

She was glad when they had finally made it to Judy’s car for now she could sit down. She was glad that her stomach seemed to have calmed down somewhat, unwilling to ruin Judy’s car.

Unfortunately her body decided to get out the last rest of what was still inside her once they had arrived at the hospital.

It stopped after a few moments, but Sara guessed this was simply because nothing was left in her stomach anymore than she could vomit. She was still gagging though as if her body had not quite realized yet that it would bring out nothing anymore. Sara swayed and the dots that were dancing in front of her eyes multiplied until they combined to one bright wall that soon turned black. Sara could still hear sounds around her while she sank down weakly, unknowing what was actually happening.

One thing she knew was happening. She was losing consciousness. She didn’t want to… But maybe it was better than feeling this sick… she just did not know how bad it was… she rather wanted to stay conscious, afraid of what would happen if she didn’t…

She felt being lifted from the ground and heard more sounds around her, even though no comprehensible words got through the noise in her ears. She winced when she felt them pricking her skin with a needle, but was glad to still notice what was going on. She was at the hospital. They knew what they were doing. She would be alright. Greg had gotten sick out in the desert. He must have been so afraid. She had been, too.

She lay still and after a few minutes the agitation around her calmed down. It became quieter. Her stomach had become calmer as well, her breathing quieter and slower. And now Sara drifted off after all, although she still did not want to.

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

He should have listened closely. The doctor had said she was going to get some of the tubes out. This obviously implied that she would not get out all of them. Greg groaned. It was certainly annoying. He was feeling way better already, just a little weakened as if he had eaten something really bad. Well, he had drunken something really bad. And now it were these tubes that hindered him from going to look for Sara himself.

Of course, the doctor had promised him to go and check. Right after the nurse had promised him to go and check. Neither of them had returned yet, and while Greg could certainly forgive them, figuring their jobs were busy enough, it did not make him less impatient.

Judy had gone by now and Greg was left alone and worried. If he had not been confined to his bed, he would have gone on search for Sara himself, but as matters were he could only wait. He groaned. The more time passed, the more worried he grew. Judy had not sounded pessimistic and that had almost convinced him that Sara would be alright, but maybe Judy had estimated the situation wrongly. Greg could still vividly remember how bad he had felt some hours ago… Sara certainly did not feel better now. And what was if she had somehow ingested the majority of the poison? Maybe it had been at the bottom of the bottle and she had drunken the rest…

Greg’s thoughts were running wild, when to his surprise Nick stuck his head through the door, entering the room on seeing Greg awake.

“Hey, Greggo.”

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Greg wanted to know. Nick seemed reasonable cheerful, so he did not need to worry, did he?

“Judy called me,” Nick explained.

“She did?” Greg was surprised.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, she said she had to go home, but thought that somebody should go and look after you and Sara.”

Greg looked at his friend pleadingly. “Do you know how Sara’s doing?”

“I came straight to you,” Nick answered avoiding. “I wanted to check on you first.”

Greg let himself drop back on his bed. “Could everybody please stop looking after me and start checking on Sara, please?” he said irritated in his worry. Nick seemed a bit taken aback.

“I’ll go and check on her right now,” he told his friend.

Greg grumbled.

“What?” Nick asked.

“You’re the third person who promises me that and I still haven’t heard anything about Sara,” Greg explained, looking at the ceiling, then sitting up and looking at Nick beseechingly. “Please, can you go and check and come right back? I mean, I just want to know. If she’s alright and you want to talk to her that’s okay, tell me she’s alright and you can go to her again. If it’s bad… I want to know, too. Seriously, this is driving me crazy.”

“Ah, man, I’m sorry. I’ll go and check and I’ll be right back,” Nick promised, and Greg suspected that he had almost added an assertion that Sara would be alright, but did not do it after all.

“I can’t believe this happened,” he said. “It was me who got the damn card…”

“What card?” Nick wanted to know, frowning at his friend in confusion now.

“I’ll tell you later,” Greg replied. “Sara. Now. Please.”

Nick nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Greg behind unhappily. He had not given much thought to the card thing anymore, or to the case that was connected to it. His mind had been on different things. It was still on different things and he did not feel like pondering about the case now at all. If he knew that Sara would be alright, he could spend some thoughts on the case, maybe, keen to find out who was behind all of this, but right now, he could not think about it. He could imagine that anger would drive him, if Sara was in a bad condition, but he would certainly not be allowed to work the case anymore anyway.

He thought of other things that had been pushed to the back of his mind and he stopped looking at the door in expectation of somebody coming in, and lay down again, pulling the blanket up over his face. He felt more and more like hiding from the situation, more and more wishing he would wake up and everything was just a bad dream. If it had to be real, it could be so, but then he wanted to wake up and have Sara there, maybe worrying about him and happy he had woken up. It was a nice imagination.

Greg wished that Nick hurried up. His friend’s return was made unnecessary though few minutes later, when the doctor who had treated Greg earlier and who had promised to check on Sara as well, hastened into Greg’s room.