Okay, I got this idea based upon something that happened to me on my last plane trip, and then as soon as I started working on it, the same kind of thing happened on House. It's weird actually, but other than the whole airport thing, the two things are completely different. Excuse me for borrowing lyrics and the titlefrom Aqualung. I just thing the song fits so perfectly. It's my first work in process piece, so my updating might go a little slower. Sorry about any mistakes, I didn't do my usual 5x editing, though I should have.
I've been watching you're word from afar,
I've been trying to be where you are,
And I've been secretly falling apart, you'll see.
She entered the break room in a huff. She grabbed her mug out of the cupboard and filled it with coffee before sitting down beside Greg on the couch, all without saying a word. She took a long look at the pool of brown before reluctantly taking a sip. As the blue ceramic parted from her lips a slight smile formed upon them.
"I figured you'd need a pick me up after…you know…the news." Greg replied to all the words her gap-toothed grin had said in silence. It was his special premium blend, opposed to the other comparable to motor oil.
"So you heard too…"
"One week paid vacation to DC, boring conferences, and black tie dinner included. Sound like such fun…" That last comment was said in sarcasm, but the rest was nothing but the truth.
"No way, a black tie dinner too?"
"Yep, dressing up, dancing, the whole nine yards."
"Yet another rare occasion to wear the dress hidden in the back of my closet."
"Wait…the black one?"
She didn't know why he seemed so interested, but she answered anyway. "It's the only dress I own…why?"
"I love that one." He was soon elbowed in the side before returning to the coffeemaker for more. "Another cup?" She stopped to look down at her mug that was only half empty. "This might be your only chance. I might not offer again…you know I'm quite stingy with this stuff." She nodded and he poured her more without her having to answer. "Plus if it's not gone by the time Grissom gets here, he'll claim it's partly his."
No sooner had Greglet those words escape from his mouth, Grissom entered the room and headed for the coffeemaker. "Why should I let you drink my coffee?" Give me one good reason." Greg asked, but Grissom took a drink anyway.
"This about the conference, isn't it?"
"Do we have to go?" Greg whined.
"Yes, and it should be Ecklie to whom you're whining, not me."
Sara interrupted, "So what do you have for us today?"
"Nothing actually. It's a slow day for crime in Las Vegas. You can stay here on call or go home…pack your bags…rest up. I'll call you if I need you." Then he just left down the hall for his office.
"Then why couldn't he tell us that before we came in to work." He meant to keep the comment to himself, but Sara overheard and showed a slight smile in agreement. "Okay…I'm going, so I'll see you at the airport bright and early, so don't be late!"
"Did I ever tell you how much I hate airplanes?" Sara mentioned as Greg fought to keep their carry on bags up in the overhead compartment, opposed to falling down on top of him or anyone else.
"You'll go to serve a warrant without a gun, but flying at thirty thousand feet is a nightmare. Imagine that." He sat down in his aisle seat beside her.
"No…I'm serious." He could tell it was the truth by the way her hand was grasping the armrest situated between the two of them.
He lightly placed his hand over hers. "It'll be okay." He reassured, softly brushing the back of her hand with his thumb. "I say we plot revenge on Ecklie. He's the one who's making us take this awful plane trip anyway."
"Prank his office?" She considered.
"No, I've already done that."
"How about toilet papering his house?"
"That's kid's stuff."
"Exactly…that's why he'd never figure out it was us."
"You're brilliant…"
"I know." He hadn't realized, but his hand was still sharing the armrest along with hers, until just then when she decided to use it once again to retrieve her book from beneath the seat before the plane took off.
She awoke to what she originally thought was a freight train or a grizzly bear in hibernation based solely upon the noise she heard before opening her eyes. Though when she did open them she saw neither of those things, but Greg's head resting on her shoulder, snoringdirectly into her ear.
"Greg…" She tapped lightly on the top of his head. It didn't work, so she did it once again, thoughshe tappedharder and spoke a bit louder. When it didn't work that time she pushed him off and he suddenly woke up.
"Hey, what did you do that for?" He squinted the bright lights from his eyes.
"You woke me up, so I felt it was only fair."
"Oh…did I forget to tell you that I snore?"
"Yeah, you did…and I'll only be spending a whole week sharing a hotel room with you."
Greg's face perked up a bit after her heard her speak. "Really? I thought we'd have two rooms."
"No, the department's cheap…and it's a two bed hotel room, but still…you better not try anything."
"Sara…I would never…"He was rather offended that she could ever think of him in that way.
"I'm just kidding. I'm just glad I didn't have to go with Catherine. She's awful. She takes an hour in the bathroom in the morning and never wants to do anything accept go to conferences."
"Oh, don't worry about me. I'll make sure we have some fun no matter what it takes. And if you hadn't noticed, I don't need an hour to look presentable."
"Oh really," She pointed to the hair sticking straight on end, and this time, not on purpose.
He quickly flattened his hair like she knew he would as soon as she said something. "If we're going to make this trip fun no matter how boring the reason for going really is, I'm going to need your help."
"Deal."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"Yep, that's why they post it up in bright red letter for the world to see, simply to confuse everybody." He said as their flight to DC had been cancelled, actually every flight easy from Chicago was cancelled. It was winter, but for two people who lived in Las Vegas, they seemed to have forgotten that the word snow was usually synonymous with winter in other parts of the country.
"We're stuck here until tomorrow afternoon."
"We could get a motel for the night, but we have no luggage, not clothes…no coats, and I doubt we'll find a cab…" Sara didn't want to stay either but she was being realistic.
"So we're stuck here?"
"Exactly."
They were given blankets, pillows, toothbrushes, and other necessities by the woman at the desk who alsoinformed them of the best place to go if they wanted to actually get a good night's sleep, well…at least a better one than they would get surrounded by all the other people staying at their gate. It was terminal G, the last one; it was only used for private planes. It was a lot smaller than those for commercial flights and because it was so far away from everything else, no one really knew it was there. When the first arrived to where they were directed to go, they found that it was true, no oneelse was there,apart from a few maintenance men. It was like a four star hotel in comparison to everything else.
Greg and Sara had picked up dinner to go from a fast food Chinese restaurant they had stumbled upon along the way and were sitting next to a heater where they'd conveniently decided to set up camp.
"Yep, I told everybody I wanted to be an astronaut. I even went to space camp when I was twelve."
"What made your change your mind?" Sara wondered aloud.
"I realized only geeks went to space camp!"
"Oh, and now you would call yourself…what?"
"Hey, look who's talking!" He protested.
"Yes Greg, I know I'm still worse than you…though I never played much chess…and I never got to go to space camp or anything else when I was twelve for the fact."
"Why?"
"I…I didn't have the best childhood."
"Come on Sara…"
"No, I don't want to talk about it, okay!"
Greg batted his eyes and put on his best puppy dog look, but she still refused. "Truth or dare?"
"Come on Greg, we're not kids anymore. I'm not playing."
"It's actually very educational."
"In what way?" She debated back.
"I get to learn more about you…which in my opinion is so much more worth my time than four years of Spanish in high school."
"Truth." She scoffed, finally giving into his childish idea.
"I'll go easy on you…your perfect evening?"
"I don't know…"
"That can't be your answer."
"Something that catches me off guard, surprises me, something different, creative, something that shows me thought was put into it. Specifically…I don't really know." She got up quickly and tossed her garbage into the trash can after she had finished eating. "Your turn." She reminded him, returning to her seat beside him.
"Truth…" He said, lying back to look up at the ceiling waiting for his question.
"Was that rumor really true…twenty-two?" She was vague, but he knew exactly about what she was referring.
"Sadly enough…yes." She didn't laugh like he had expected. "Every other relationship I had hadn't lasted more than two months, and that girl I'd been with for over two years…so what would you expect?"
"No…I was just curious." She decided that second that the ceiling seemed rather interesting, so she lied down beside him, as looking up at the ceiling was a lot less awkward than looking at him right in the face while discussing something she knew he didn't really want to talk about.
"And Nick said he'd keep it to himself."
"Well, I will…except...sorry I let it slip to Mia."
"It's okay…" He slightly smiled over toward Sara, quite embarrassed by it all. Maybe this wasn't the best of his brilliant ideas to suggest.
"Actually…I have more respect for you now than I did before I knew that was true." He looked a bit confused. "At least you weren't like every guy I met in college…How about you ask me my question and change the subject." She offered, and he jumped at the chance.
"Thank you." He laughed nervously. "Which will it be?"
"Why can't these pillows ever be fluffy? I mean, what's the purpose of having a travel pillow if it doesn't work as a pillow?" She continued to fuss with the uncomfortable borrowed cushion behind her head until she finally gave up.
"Let me be you own personal pillow…"
"What?" She sat up quickly.
"Come on, I'm plenty fluffy…" He patted his stomach, though it didn't really prove much.
"Yeah, only because you're wearing a sweater, otherwise you're just a beanpole."
"Sara…you know you want to…" He teased like only Greg could. And for once she actually gave in to it. Either way she would have a pain in the neck, either from trying to lay on the floor or possibly because of Greg's whining if she didn't agree. She turned to lie cross ways, her head rested upon his stomach. "You never answered…it's your turn."
"Oh…truth, I guess."
"What's going on with us? Are we just co-workers, a crime fighting team…friends…what?"
"Of course we're friends, Greg."
"Really?"
"If we weren't I wouldn't be here right now."
"Be where...on your way to a boring convention, stuck in an airport, or preparing to get a good night's sleep on the floor?" His light laughing caused Sara's head to move up and down as his chest rose and fell. He wasn't nearly as fluffy as he said, but it was okay anyway.
"I mean, I would have found someway to get out of going if I had been stuck with Catherine or Warrick. I would be back home being my usual workaholic self."
"But instead, we're miserable together."
"It's better than miserable alone…"
When there entered an awkward silence, one that seemed so familiar to the two of them as it happened quite often. The thing between the two of them was comfortable yet so confusing. Well, actually, it was more uncomfortable for Greg, yet completely confusing for the both of them. They worked together nearly everyday, so she supposed that was how it happened. She knew of his obvious interest, but all of a sudden he was fine with how things were, whatever it was between them. And he found it strange how he at one time found himself constantly rejected, to having it be Sara who was suggesting that they spend time together whilst they were off the clock as well. Sure she considered herself friends with both Nick and Warrick, but there was something different with Greg and her, but she wasn't exactly sure what it was.
Sara's wandering mind was stopped short when she heard a distinct rumbling sound from beneath her. "Greg, you just ate not even an hour ago, now don't tell me you're still hungry?" She sat herself up slightly.
"No, it's just setting…"
"Oh, lovely…my pillow gurgles too." She said rather disgusted by it all.
"You know you'd be going crazy right now if I and my gurgling stomach weren't here with you." He fiddled with the strands of the hair that were loosely lying around her face.
"You know what good came with this bad weather…" He was hoping she would say it was that moment right then, just the two of them and no one else, because that wasexactly what he was feeling, but he doubted that was what she planned to say. "…one day less that we have to actually go to the convention. By the time we get to DC it'll be over for the day and we can do whatever we feel like doing once we get there."
"I would think you of all people would actually like to go to conferences…conventions…or for whatever it is we are being sent there."
"Well, then your 'very educational game' didn't work so well…youdon't know me Greg…"
"Don't worry…I will."
"Greg…I don't like to talk about my childhood…I pretty much didn't have one…" He wasn't sure where she was going by starting up a conversation on the one thing she hated more than anything to discuss. "My father died when I was eight…because of my mother." She didn't know of Greg's shocked reaction, she couldn't see his face, but it took him awhile to say anything in response, and considering it was Greg, that definitely wasn't normal. "My mom was out in an institution and I was sent off to a foster home...just so you know."
"Oh, Sara…" He felt awful, after all, he was the one who asked her about it in the first place. Before he could say anything more, he glanced down to see her eyes closed and Sara drifting off to sleep.
He usually could sleep anywhere and in any situation, but this was quite different. First of all, Sara was still using him for the pillow suggestion so he was unable to move even if he tried. It also made him rather uneasy that Sara was asleep by his side in a dark empty airport terminal. It was weird…so far, the whole trip had been to tell the truth.
To me, you're strange and you're beautiful,
You'd be so perfect with me but you just can't see,
You turn every head, but you just don't see me.
So what do you all think...good...bad...absolutely horrible? What? Well, I'd really like to know, so please tell me.