When She Says (Sara/Greg)

G

gregsandersfan

Pathologist
A/N: This story is a sequel of 'Something Happens' (can be found here: Something Happens). As usual with my fics, it's not really necessary to read that though, since I bring up again what is relevant for the new fic lol.

My fics can also be found at fanfiction.net (see my signature).

I hope you'll enjoy!

Summary: Greg and Sara deal with a trial, centrifugal forces, and the aftermath of lies and fear. SaraGreg


When She Says

Chapter 1: Silence

The lab was quiet; the only sound that could be heard was the humming coming out of the different laboratories. Nick could see him already from a fair distance, bent over one of the tables in the layout room.

In the past months they had managed to regain friendly ground between them. Well, Greg had always stayed fairly friendly. Nick on the other hand had become rather hostile towards the younger man. With Sara out of the picture, the tension between them had diminished even though they were still far away from their former close friendship.

Of course, Greg still did not trust Nick one hundred percent, especially not on the Charlie issue. And Nick had still not forgiven the younger man completely, even though he had become softer on the topic, now that Greg was not together with Sara anymore.

Back when that had been the case, Nick had not been able to stand that Sara seemed to have forgiven Greg that easily, that she had let Greg get close to her despite that it had been partly his fault that Sara had been hurt, and it had actually happened because of him.

Nick was approaching Greg now who did not look up, before Nick had already stopped next to him. Greg seemed fairly surprised, obviously having been deeply absorbed in his work.

“Got anything?” he asked Nick, glancing at the other man briefly before turning his look back at the table in front of him.

“No,” Nick shook his head. “I just… Don’t you want to go home and catch some sleep before… you know?” he suggested.

Both of them knew what he was talking about. In the morning Greg was supposed to give his testimony in Charlie’s trial. It was actually expected that Sara would be heard soon after, but that was not the real issue. It was more so the extent of Greg’s involvement that was the problem. He was not going to get away not mentioning it. And everybody knew how bad that would make him look.

When Sara would have the opportunity to say anything, to correct any impression, the damage could already be done. If she intended to correct anything at all, considering the developments of the recent months. And then there was Nick. And Greg’s lack of faith in what Nick would testify when he would tell about the day Charlie had turned up at Greg’s place and had taken both Greg and Sara hostage. Or only Sara, with Greg’s help, as detractors would say.

“Grissom didn’t give me off,” Greg returned now. “We’re swamped here. He can’t afford me going home just to catch some Z’s during my usual hours.”

Nick nodded. Grissom was not too soft on the younger man. It had basically been Sara’s begging that had brought Greg back to the graveyard shift. Well, Sara had always angrily denied to having begged Grissom, but Nick assumed that she had at least asked him to bring Greg back.

“It’s going to be alright, Greg,” Nick tried to assure him now. Greg waited with his answer for a moment, attending to the evidence in front of him instead.

“I don’t think you’re even supposed to talk to me about that,” he returned, sounding calm, but also somewhat careful. Nick nodded, only slightly taken aback. He could have expected Greg’s reaction.

“I didn’t want to-,”

“It’s alright,” Greg interrupted him, smiling even. Nick had certainly not intended to bring any of them into trouble, so it was not quite fair of Greg, if he came down hard on the Texan who had simply cared and asked.

He did not think the caring was necessary though. Greg had it planned out well. He would finish his work in time, would take a shower still at the lab and change into the suit that was hanging in his locker, before leaving for court. He had done this often enough. Since he had become a CSI, he had testified on a regular basis.

And today would not be any different.

It would be different. There was no question about that.

It was personal now.

Greg was nervous, and right now he was having a hard time hiding it from Nick. He had to remember that he was not the defendant, he was just a witness. The trial was not about him.

And still he could not help feeling guilty. He wondered if it would shine through his testimony. He knew that if Sara was there, she would have made sure that he did not feel like this, which was ironic, considering that she was the one he was feeling guilty about.

He did not want to think about Sara although it had become somewhat less painful to think about her lately. He had found himself able to think of her rather calmly and neutrally. But that was probably because he had not seen her.

Nick had quietly started working next to him, and Greg was thankful that he had not tried to bring up the topic of the trial again. Greg was not sure if he wanted to talk about it with anybody. He certainly would have wanted to with Sara, but that was out of question. But Nick was not the right one for that conversation.

Everything about the trial, what had happened, had been the reason of the tension and actual fight that had been going on between them for a long time. It had cooled off by now, now that Sara was not around who had basically been the tinder for the fire that had broken out between them, even though she had not intended to, had even tried to calm them down for a while. Until she had given up on that.

Greg did not even notice how the time passed, and when he looked up at the clock the next time, he realized that it was already so late that he had to hurry up a bit.

“Uh, I gotta go,” he told Nick. “Do you mind finishing this up for me?” he pointed at his unfinished work.

“No problem,” Nick nodded at him, and Greg left the room quickly, taking off his gloves.

He came out of the shower fifteen minutes later, trying to bring his hair in order. He changed into his suit quickly, taking some glances into the mirror though, making sure he was looking properly. On his way out of the locker room, Warrick caught sight of him and came up to him slowly.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

Greg went with his hand over his hair one more time. “I’m fine,” he answered. “Bit nervous.” So he had admitted to Warrick what he had not to Nick.

“Nah,” Warrick brushed it off. “You’re going to be alright. Just tell them what happened to make sure that guy gets what he deserves.”

Greg nodded. “Yeah.”

Warrick smiled, turning more serious a moment later. “Do you think-?”

“I have no idea,” Greg shrugged, guessing that the other man wanted to ask after Sara. Greg was not able to tell him any more about Sara than about any other person living in Vegas. Warrick nodded and Greg walked off with a short goodbye.

Of course he had wondered if Sara would be there, even though he had not really allowed himself thinking about it. He did not know what he would do if he saw her. Probably the same thing he had done when that had happened the last time. Nothing.

Nothing was what was between them. It was not even comparable to the short time they had not been talking after the truth had come out about Charlie, and Greg had been forced to work as a lab tech again. Back then, there had at least been tension, longing. And he had seen her sometimes.

Now there was nothing. Well, longing maybe. He did not know anymore. He did not know whether he missed her or not. It was strange. After seeing each other almost daily for years, this was suddenly not the case anymore.

She would have made him feel better. He knew that. She would have made sure he did not blame himself. She had mostly been able to keep those thoughts in toe that were wearing him down. She had always said that she felt save with him. How was she feeling now? Greg did not think there could be a more difficult question.

The drive to the courthouse barely registered in his brain. He had driven there often enough so that he did not even need to think about where he had to go. He was well in time and managed to blend in with the other people who made their way into the building.

On the one hand, she blended in well, too. On the other hand, Greg could not have missed her.

He saw her from behind, walking up the stairs. Her hair had grown longer. The fact that he noticed that told him only more so that he had not seen her for a long time. She did not turn around, but he was taking in her figure, following her, the distance between them not getting smaller though.

Greg almost forgot what he was actually there for. His eyes were on Sara, and although he had found his way to the correct room just by following her, he had to force himself to take his mind and his eyes off her. When he walked into the room where he was supposed to wait, he took his gaze away from her, watching some of the other people in the room. He knew that she was standing at the other side of the room; he was tempted to look over to her again, but he could not do this now. He had to focus on the reason why he was here. He could not let himself be distracted by her presence.

And at the end, he glanced over to her again. And like it had to come, she caught his sight. Her expression was unreadable at first; then he saw the wondering in her face, before she suddenly smiled a small smile at him that Greg returned, feeling calmer now than he had during the whole day. And closer to her than he had in months.

TBC
 
Hey,
I really like the beginning of your story, the way you describe Greg's feelings and how the the past events have effects on his relationship with Nick. Will we get more information on what happened in the past? I haven't read the previous story and I'm not sure if I'll find the time. But i it's necessary for understanding the story, then I'll read it because this one sounds very interesting!

Write on soon! SDL
 
Yes, everything that happened in the past will be explained. As I've said above, it's not necessary to read "Something Happens" (I know it *is* kinda long lol), but of course you can still do so lol.
Things will be much clearer later, but for now I want to keep up some suspense, too. ;)
 
A/N: There’ll be quite some of recollection of what happened in the first few chapters of ‘Something Happens’, since they are having the trial after all. I hope this won’t bore you out lol. I also hope the writing won’t be too confusing. When there’s a sentence in italics it means that Greg (or whoever) is starting to remember a past event. So, enough forewords…


Chapter 2: Sides

Sara did not make a move to walk over to him. Neither of them would break that arrangement they had. It wouldn’t be helpful now. It would actually be harming. Both of them had other issues to care for. Greg had to make sure that everybody learned what had happened so that Charlie would never harm Sara again. And he had to worry how he himself would come out of everything. He could not hope for Sara to help him.

She had helped him in the past. She had asked Grissom for his transfer back to graveyard. Grissom had given his okay, and Greg and Sara had been back working together.

It had been nice while it had lasted…

Greg had been happy to be back at graveyard. As in Grissom’s and Sara’s agreement, he and Sara were not assigned to any cases together, at least not alone, as Grissom hold the opinion that it was not appropriate at least not until the trial was over and everything would go back to normal.

Grissom had warned Sara that she would have to testify against Charlie and that there was the chance of Greg’s involvement being brought up. Greg had always known that this was not only a chance, but a fact.

Nevertheless he and Sara had been happy to work together at the lab again, complementing the time they shared together off work. In retrospection it was certainly the best time Greg had had in the last couple of years.

Part of it had ended when Hodges had been walking into the AV room where both Greg and Sara were working.

“Sara.”

Sara looked up to Hodges. “Yeah?”

“Ecklie wants to see you in his office,” Hodges told her grimacing. Sara frowned, but shrugged.

“I’m just going to finish this up here.” She glanced at Greg who had stopped working, looking at Hodges wondering.

“I’m sorry,” Hodges returned sounding actually this way. “He said you should hand over anything to Greg and come straight to his office.”

Sara seemed to have turned a bit paler. She tried to keep her expression unreadable though. Greg looked at her worriedly.

“Why…?” he started. Sara did not look at him, but packed the clothes she had been analyzing, shoving the bag over to him then. Hodges had left as inconspicuously as it was possible for him.

Sara moved to leave as well. “Sara?” Greg called after her. She turned around to him. “It’s going to be okay,” he told her. Whatever it was. She smiled briefly, before she walked away.

She had not returned. Greg had continued working for a while, his mind not really on his task. When Sara had not been back after an hour, he had set out to search for her. Ecklie’s office had been the first stop. He had been wondering what the lab director had been doing there at that time of the night in the first place. Now the room was deserted. Sara was not there, but neither was Ecklie.

Greg looked around the lab, but did not find Sara anywhere. He did not want to ask anybody if they had seen her, not wanting to cause any rumors as to her absence and his search. Finally he took out his cell phone, pressing the key that dialed the last called number. After a few seconds he knew that her phone was out.

Greg sighed, guessing that whatever had happened had frustrated Sara so much that she did not even want to talk to him. He checked the time and figured that he should return to work, as little as he wanted to.

He kept checking his phone, hoping for any sign of Sara. It did not come until the end of his shift. Greg was not really sure what to do. He and Sara had not made any plans for the day until she had left for Ecklie’s office.

Greg left the lab and made his way to Sara’s place. He felt slightly uncomfortable. What if Ecklie had done what Greg feared he had done? The fact that Sara had been told to hand over any evidence to Greg did not bode well. Greg figured that he could not do much more than be there for her.

He walked up to her apartment in a somewhat rainy mood, ringing the bell twice. The door was not opened. Greg stood there wondering for a few moments, until the door of the neighboring apartment opened and a young woman walked out of it, locking her door behind her.

“Sara’s not at home,” she said with a look at Greg. “I saw her leaving earlier.”

“Oh,” Greg was surprised. “Thanks,” he nodded, walking away slowly. So where had Sara gone? On his way back to his car, Greg flipped his cell phone open, again trying to call Sara. This time around she even picked up and Greg breathed a sigh of relief that he had not even known he’d been holding.

“Hey, Sara, where are you?” he asked quickly.

“At the lab,” she replied simply.

“Oh, good. I mean… what’s up? What happened?” he wanted to know.

“Can we talk about that later?” Sara returned. “Come over tonight, and we’ll talk, okay?”

“Okay…” Greg started slowly.

“Talk to you later,” she said and ended the call, leaving Greg behind wondering. He made his way home, still thinking about what had happened and what Sara had said. Actually she had not said much. She had sounded quite well though, so Greg figured there was no point in worrying.

He went straight to bed once he was home, curious to know what was the matter with Sara, but tired enough to actually get several hours of sleep. At 7 PM he was back in front of her place. This time Sara opened up, letting him in.

He sat down on her couch, looking at her expectantly. “So what happened?”

Sara shrugged, and Greg wondered if she was really as calm as this gesture wanted to indicate.

“Ecklie put me to days,” she said simply.

“He did what?” Greg exclaimed.

“Transferred me to days,” Sara shrugged again. She did not look too happy, but did not make any move to complain about this new arrangement either.

“Why?” Greg asked helplessly.

“He just did,” she returned, dropping onto the couch next to him. “He said now that you’re back on graveyard – on Grissom’s request – he’d like me to work at days.” She shook her head. “He also said something about how it looks… you and me working together and everything.” She still sounded very calm, way too calm in Greg’s opinion.

“And this is okay with you?”

She looked at him directly. “Greg, what am I supposed to do? And actually it’s nice to work days for a change, you know.” She grimaced. “That I’m answering to Ecklie now isn’t that great, but I’ll manage.”

“I’m sorry,” Greg said quietly, but smiled then. “I never thought you’d take something like this so calmly.”

Sara raised her eyebrows. “Mmh, maybe you don’t know me after all.”

Greg grinned. “Oh, I do know you.” He leaned in, luring her for a moment, before he kissed her lightly and she chuckled. “Why didn’t you want to tell me about it on the phone then?”

Sara’s expression got more serious and she drew a bit away from him. “It wasn’t a good moment to talk.”

“It’s okay,” he said.

“Yeah.”

Greg leaned back to her, drawing her closer to him, and Sara smiled again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greg remembered that day when he saw Sara smiling at him from the other side of the room at the court house. Much had happened since then; many things had changed, especially between them.

Greg was told to sit down and wait until he would be called in to testify. Sara had seated herself some distance away from him and had brought out what looked like a forensic journal. She had not opened it yet, but glanced at Greg again, before she looked away when she saw that he was watching her.

Now she opened her journal, browsing it briefly before she started reading. Greg kept watching her for some more moments, before he took his gaze away, closing his eyes and breathing out slowly. He was not feeling as neutral now as his attitude towards her had recently seemed to be.

It seemed to take forever and it were actually hours that went by until he was finally called. He glanced a last time at Sara before he left the room, but she did not look up. Ordering his clothes one final time, Greg walked into the court room. The amount of people in there was assessable. It had obviously been achieved that the case was kept pretty low profile, at least more than one would have expected. There was a kidnapping involved after all. And two crime scene investigators, one of them the victim, and the other one…

Greg did not really know what he should call himself in this whole mess.

TBC
 
Keep going, I love the new post I can't wait to see what happen, I hope after it all over with Ecklie we let here back on the night shift.
 
Chapter 3: Scenes

He knew the prosecutor and he knew the defendant. Who had coincidentally used to be his friend. Greg sat down and went through the usual procedure. The first questions were easy; they did not concern the actual happenings.

That would start soon enough though.

“Mr. Sanders, could you tell me about the day Mr. Brady came to your apartment?” the prosecutor asked.

Like now.

Greg leaned closer to the microphone, making sure he was understandable. “Well, it was my birthday,” he started. “Mr. Brady came to my place in the morning. He told me he’d arranged a trip as a surprise.”

“Did you know at this point about the ‘surprise’?”

Greg frowned slightly, shaking his head. “I thought he meant the trip. I’d never thought…”

“What happened then?”

Greg rubbed his forehead. “We went to his car and drove off. Then Charlie – Mr. Brady – started to become agitated, telling me how he’s not sure he did the right thing.” He swallowed. “I still thought he was talking about the trip. When we arrived at the cabin, he kept going on and on how ‘it was wrong’.”

“And you did not know what he was talking about?”

Greg shook his head again. “He kept glancing at the car. At the trunk more precisely.” Greg closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the shock he had suffered back then. “I wanted to check why he was doing that and opened the trunk.”

“And found…?”

“Sara,” Greg replied quietly, swallowing. Sara. Even now, several months later, he could not believe that had happened to her. Because of him.

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

There had been somebody else who had not been willing to believe that.

Nick.

A few days after Sara had been transferred to dayshift, Nick was catching up with her in the hallway of the crime lab. Sara was focused on a paper in her hands, so she did not notice him at first.

“Sara,” he called out to her. She looked up, catching his sight.

“Hey, Nick.”

“How are you doing?” he wanted to know, walking along with her.

“I’m fine, thanks,” she smiled.

Nick did not really smile back. “So you took the fall for Greg after all?”

Sara’s smile changed into a deep frown quickly. She looked away from him, starring forward along the corridor instead.

“What do you mean?” she asked him sharply.

“Your transfer to days,” he clarified.

“I like working at days,” Sara replied, still not looking back at him.

Nick chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure you like working for Ecklie.”

“That’s none of your business,” she returned annoyed. She stopped, turning around to him now. “Look, it wasn’t my idea to go to days-“

“So you actually took the fall for Greg?” Nick inserted quickly.

“- but this has nothing to do with Greg,” Sara stated firmly. “And there’s no reason anybody would need to take the fall for him.”

Sara looked at her feet. She was still aggravated that Nick was taking this out so hard on Greg. He did not like that she and Greg were together, after everything that had happened. If the whole Charlie disaster had never occurred, Nick would have most likely agreed happily to their relationship, but now he was holding the opinion that Sara had been hurt because of Greg, and Greg was even taken advantage of it. She had told Nick several times that this was not the case. He had not listened. And Sara could not really be angry at his protective streak.

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

It had become warm. Greg could see that the sun outside was almost at its highest point. He was sweating in his suit and feeling uncomfortable.

It was nothing in comparison to what Sara must have gone through. Greg had never asked her, if she had woken up in that trunk of Charlie’s car. He was not even sure how long she had been in there, until he had found her. He could not even imagine the fear she must have gone through. And later, he had added only more to it.

Greg had almost missed the next question the prosecutor was asking.

“In what condition was Ms. Sidle when you found her in the car?”

Greg looked at the man quickly. He remembered only now again that it was not he who was on trial.

“She was unconscious,” he replied. “Her hands and feet were bound.” Greg tensed at the memory. He looked around briefly in the courtroom, if only to calm himself. Most of the faces were unknown to him, but at the far end of the room he suddenly detected one face that he knew very well. Now that their shift was well over, Grissom had made his way to court too, following the proceedings that concerned two of his CSIs. Well, one of his CSIs and one former. His expression was unreadable to Greg and the younger man did not look into his direction very long, but returned his gaze to the prosecutor.

“I tried to lift her out of the trunk,” Greg continued his statement.

“What did Mr. Brady do?”

Greg frowned. He had not paid attention to Charlie back then. His mind had only been on Sara, so the question of the prosecutor caught him off guard.

“I don’t really know. I didn’t watch him,” he admitted. “I mean, Sara was the only one I could think of. It wasn’t easy to get her out, bound and all. I didn’t want to hurt her.”

He had never wanted to hurt her. And nevertheless he had.

“What did you do then?”

“I lay her onto the ground and told Charlie that we needed to get her to the hospital.”

“She was still unconscious at that time?”

Greg nodded. “I didn’t know if she was hurt. I just wanted to bring her to the hospital, but Charlie didn’t want to.” His so-called friend had been afraid that Sara would turn them in.

“What did he do?”

“He said we needed to get rid of her,” Greg replied quietly. “He threatened to kill her. He had a gun.” His only instinct had been to protect Sara. He could not even imagine what he would have done if anything had happened to her. He would have been an accessory in murder, and he probably would not have fought it.

“Had he already been armed before?” came the next question.

Greg shook his head. “No, I mean, I don’t know where he had the gun from. I didn’t pay attention before.”

“Go on, please.”

It was not only the heat now. His stomach was getting worse and worse, too. But Greg nodded and went on.

“He said he’d kill her and since there was no connection between him and Sara, they’d never get him.” For a second his glance went to Charlie who was sitting next to his lawyer. Then Greg looked back at the prosecutor.

“But you could prevent that?”

Greg frowned again slightly. “I told him that since there’s no connection to us, we should let her go. I pleaded him that if he was my friend, he shouldn’t harm her.”

“But actually there was a connection between you and Ms. Sidle?”

“Yes.” Greg nodded. He had done everything to prevent Charlie from learning that, afraid he would freak and kill Sara if he knew.

“What is the relationship between you and Ms. Sidle?”

“We’re co-workers and friends.” They might have been more than friends in the past, but the question had been asked in the present, Greg thought. And considering this, his response that they were friends was not even that true anymore.

“Mr. Brody did not know that at that point of time?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Could you please go on and tell us what happened next?”

Greg nodded. Now they were going into the difficult part of this. Although nothing of this statement had felt easy so far. Greg wondered if he had ever really said that he was sorry. He remembered apologizing to Sara. More than once. But had he ever really told her, ever really made her clear how sorry he was?

He swallowed. “Sara was waking up.” What would have been a relief in any other situation, had only caused a dilemma for Greg back then. He had had only seconds to decide what to do. “I figured if she wakes up, she’d yell out that knows me, of course. I was afraid Charlie would freak and kill her.” Sara was probably still sitting in the waiting room, presumably reading her forensic journal. She had seemed so calm. Greg wondered how she was doing it. And he wondered how she had still been able to trust him enough to get into a relationship with him. A relationship that was over now, but had still happened.

“What did you do?” the prosecutor reminded him to continue.

“I gagged her,” Greg went on. A murmur went through the room. It was not surprising. Most of those people had not expected Greg’s active role in this. Greg reminded himself to keep breathing and continued talking, the memory clear in his mind. “She opened her eyes and stared at me.” Would he ever be able to forget the expression in her eyes?

Greg glanced at Grissom at the other site of the room. The man’s face was still unreadable. He knew of course all of what Greg was telling.

Greg wished Sara would be sitting in the courtroom, too. He did not want her having to listen to all the details of the kidnapping again; it would be bad enough when she would have to testify herself. But Greg wished he could look at her and assure himself that the expression that was burned into his mind was not still there. That the fear he had seen was not still there. That she was back to being confident and dauntless Sara.

TBC
 
WOW! what a great fic, i am eger for you to continue, i really want to know what happens next, i read teh whole thing today, its really really good, lots of emotion, you feel like your right there with them, in the court room, reliving the memory, in the lab. Its really is good.
 
A/N: Reminder: Sentences in italics indicate the beginning of a memory. :)

Chapter 4: Sights

It seemed to go on forever.

Greg told how Charlie had made him bring Sara inside the cabin, how they had left her there and walked outside, how he tried to convince Charlie to drive her to the hospital. Charlie had suggested dropping her off somewhere. Greg had been against that back then, only to regret it when Charlie had wanted to kill Sara just to get rid of the problem.

Greg’s urgent pleas had made him suspicious that Greg knew Sara after all. He had dropped the idea after some moments much to Greg’s relief who had still been hoping that he could convince Charlie to let Sara go, under the assumption that she did not know either of them, since Charlie apparently did not know about the possibilities the crime lab would have had anyway to get to him.

“What happened then?”

Greg closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the scene clearly. “He told me she was all mine.” That was why Charlie had taken Sara after all. He had thought he would do Greg a favor. Charlie had thought he had taken a random brunette woman, not knowing that Greg and Sara knew each other.

“Did Mr. Brody tell you why he had abducted Ms. Sidle?” the prosecutor wanted to know.

“He did it for me,” Greg replied quietly. This knowledge was worse enough, only aggravated by the fact that he had been forced to hurt her. He trembled slightly for a moment, before he looked back at the man in front of him.

“Did he act on your order or wish?”

“No, of course not!” Greg stated louder now. “I wish I had known about it before… I could’ve stopped him…”

Greg did not even know who had initiated it, but a few moments later, a break was announced, and Greg stood up, leaving the stand for now. He walked out into the hallway, looking for a vending machine in dear need of a cold drink.

A minute later he opened the can, cooling his dry throat. He wandered along the hallway that was filled with people. He took another gulp from his drink and that was when he almost bumped into her. He stopped dead, spilling some of the liquid.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you,” he blurted out.

The first words he had said to her after a long while.

Sorry, I didn’t see you.

This was certainly not his favorite day.

“It’s okay,” she replied, smiling faintly. “Well, your suit’s not…”

Greg looked down at himself, but saw that the soda was not visible. He was thankful that he was wearing a dark suit. Otherwise it would have been a highlight to decorate it with spilled soda.

“It’s okay.”

“Good,” she said, before she turned away with another small smile and walked back into the direction of the waiting room. Greg looked after her perplexed, cursing himself. She vanished out of sight. Greg sighed, making his way to the restroom where he cooled his face as well and made sure that his clothes did not look too bad. He hated it.

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

Sara had seemed very tense in his arms that one night.

“Is anything wrong?” Greg whispered into her ear. He could feel her breathing next to him.

“No,” she said shortly. He reached out to stroke her hair softly.

“Are you sure?”

She turned around a bit further, facing away from him now, and he laid his arms around her chest, kissing her hair.

“Just a minor disagreement with Nick,” she admitted.

Greg nodded slightly, invisible to her. He could not see her face, for once because it was dark, but also because she was lying with her back to him, but he guessed that the disagreement had not been that minor. She apparently did not want to talk about it which strengthened his guess that he knew very well what it had been about. Him.

He cuddled some more and she finally relaxed somewhat. When he whispered another question, he noticed that it was because she had fallen asleep.

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

The time seemed to fly by until he was seated again, more or less ready to continue his testimony. It was already in the afternoon now and the sun had started to vanish at the other side of the building.

“Could you please tell us what happened after you and Mr. Brody talked outside the cabin?”

Greg nodded. “I went inside and closed the door behind me. I was hoping to find a way to get Sara out.”

“But you didn’t?”

No, he had not. Greg had been mulling over this fact countless times, wondering if he could have done anything different.

He shook his head. “I asked Sara to stay quiet, so I could remove the gag. We talked briefly and I went back to the door to see if the coast was clear.” It had not been. “I think somebody pushed me against the door then. I hit my head. I don’t know anymore after that.”

“Do you know who pushed you?”

“Well, I didn’t see him, but I guess it was Charlie. He was the only one around. I mean, it certainly wasn’t Sara. She was still bound after all, and it wouldn’t make sense, unless she would have wanted to knock me out to get away from me, but since she was tied up…” Greg rambled nervously, stopping then, when he realized that he was not making much sense and his rambling did not do any good.

“Do you know what happened afterwards?” the prosecutor wanted to know.

Greg shook his head. “I woke up in my apartment and found a letter from Charlie, telling me he had taken care of everything.”

Taken care of everything. Gotten rid of Sara.

Greg had not known what Charlie had done, but had feared the worst. And it had come close to the worst in reality.

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

When Greg woke up, he found Sara still sleeping soundly in his arms.

He loved the feeling of warmth and calmness this brought over him every time he woke up this way.

“I love you,” he said quietly.

Now he saw her smiling in the light of the early morning. He liked it when they could still spend the night together, like this night when he had been off work. Sara would leave for the lab soon. But now she turned around next to him and kissed him softly.

“I need to get up,” she said.

“Mmh, stay a few more minutes.”

“Okay,” she agreed, kissing him another time. What seemed to Greg only some blissful moments later, she moved away from his arms.

“I hate to say this, but I really need to get up now,” she told him, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. Greg sat up in the bed, rubbing his eyes.

“There’s breakfast in the kitchen,” he called after her, when she walked out of his bedroom. Reluctantly he got up as well, following her.

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

The prosecutor had finished his questions, promising to come back to Greg later to ask about the day when Charlie had come to Greg’s place again. Now the defending lawyer had his turn. He asked Greg several questions about the relationship between him and Charlie and it took a while until Greg had finally answered all of them sufficiently so that the lawyer moved on to the actual happenings.

“You told us that you left the cabin after talking briefly with Ms. Sidle. Can you tell us what your conversation was about?” he wanted to know.

“We didn’t talk long. I told her that it wasn’t me who had done that and she asked me to get her out,” Greg accounted.

“And then you left?”

“I only went out of the door. I didn’t get any farer.”

The lawyer walked closer to him. “You said earlier you didn’t see the person who pushed you against the door.”

Greg nodded.

“But you ‘guessed’ who it was?”

Greg frowned. “Yeah, I’m sure it was Charlie. He was there. He had a reason to knock me out. He brought me home when I was unconscious.”

“You didn’t see the person who pushed you?”

“I didn’t,” Greg confirmed.

“So you don’t know for sure who it was?”

“I don’t, but-”

“Do you know for sure who brought you to your place?” the lawyer went on.

“Charlie did,” Greg stated convinced. Where was the other man going with this?

“How do you know that?” was the next question.

Greg was quick to answer. He had mentioned that, had he not? “I found his letter in that he told me so.”

“How do you know the letter was from Mr. Brody?”

Greg guessed that ‘because there was his name under it’ was not a good enough answer. But everybody had to see that nothing else made sense. Why would it not have been Charlie?

“It was signed by him. And who else would have written it?”

“It is not my task to answer this, Mr. Sanders,” the lawyer replied. Greg stared at him, wondering which of the two of them had lost his mind, or if this was just another round of rationality.

TBC
 
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