Living Again

Chapter Five

Greg and Jessa drove separately to the diner that had become their usual hang out. They’d started their breakfast “dates” not long after she’d moved to Las Vegas. Finally being in the same town after being separated for years, they took advantage of their closer proximity. The diner they chose was midway between the hospital and the CSI building and the food was pretty good too. Greg liked it for a whole other reason.

They slid into opposite sides of a booth. Greg, a smile still plastered on his face, sat facing the door. Jessa chose to ignore his gloating and focused on giving her regular order to the waitress.

“You look different out of your scrubs,” the waitress, Anne said, smiling down at Jessa. “Nearly didn’t recognize you. Thought Greg finally found himself a girl.”

Greg’s smile faltered and he wondered if he spent too much time in the diner. He gave his own order and watched as she walked away. He’d asked Anne out when he and Jessa first started coming in, but she’d declined, swearing she didn’t date customers. She seemed to always be here, working, even on the days he came in alone or with the other CSIs. She was young, around his own age, and with her shoulder length blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes she took his breath away. Shrugging off thoughts of rejection, he turned to catch his sister watching him.

“What?” He asked, knowing she could read him like a book.

“Nothing,” she said, with a small smile. She knew Greg was interested in Anne. The floor tile knew he was interested. What he didn’t know was that Anne wasn’t quite as uninterested in him as she let on. The two hours she spent waiting on him during his double were spent here, in this very diner, talking to Anne before the breakfast rush. She’d let it slip that she found Greg interesting and not too hard on the eyes, but her life was complicated. It didn’t take much prodding to learn about the ex-husband lurking in the wings. Unfortunately there wasn’t much she could do. She had, of course, talked her brother up, but in the end it was Anne’s choice.

“She’s beautiful,” Greg breathed, watching Anne fill and clean her stations as they waited for their food.

“Maybe you could bring her flowers,” Jessa offered, thinking it wouldn’t hurt.

Greg considered it. To this point he hadn’t gone the gift giving route, relying instead on his gift of gab. Maybe flowers would show her he had a softer side and that he was serious when he asked her to dinner.

They settled into the comfortable silence of siblings, as they sipped the drinks that Anne brought back. Jessa thought about Nick and wondered what they’d do on their date. Greg was still thinking about wooing Anne with flowers. Their eyes met and they grinned, just knowing that the other was thinking about. It had always been this way with them. Just a look and it spoke volumes. It didn’t stop Greg from talking when he really should shut up and it didn’t make Jessa open up more, but between the two of them, they could tell what the other was thinking. Whether it was “twin speak” or just the closeness they had, neither could say, although Greg was quicker to claim twin specialness.

Anne brought their hot plates of food and gave Greg a slight smile. He beamed back as Jessa held back a giggle. Dear lord, the two of them were cute. She wondered if her and Nick were cute and was about to ask when Greg spoke.

“Yes, you both look like complete fools, grinning at each other.”

She did chuckle then. As they ate, they started talking about her options for her three days of leisure. Of course, one day would be reserved for Nick, but that left two days of nothing at all to do.

“I should finish unpacking. I think I have five boxes left.” Jessa said, vetoing Greg’s idea for her to take up strip tease aerobics.

“Jessa, you can finish unpacking in like an hour. It’s not going to take a full day.” He rolled his eyes and took a bite of toast.

“I know, but Las Vegas is pretty damn big to go at alone.” She said, pushing her plate away. “What if I get incredibly lost and can’t find my way home?”

Greg laughed. “You have a GPS, you won’t be lost for long. But who said you’d be alone? I could hang out with you a little before work and there’s Nick.”

“Nick is not going to want to spend all of his free time with me.” She said, looking away out the window. “So I guess that leaves you, what have you got planned for your ‘little’ sister?”

“Well, we could check out one of the reviews. You know, showgirls, dancing.” Greg’s eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas day.

“Greg, I thought this was about making me feel more welcome in Las Vegas, not about you seeing half naked women with big headdresses.” Jessa chuckled as his face dropped. “You know what? Let’s do it. Could be fun, at least to watch your expressions during the show.”

They fell into teasing each other over youthful indiscretions. Like the time Greg blew up Jessa’s bike by “accident”. Or the time Jessa tried to nurse a baby skunk to health and it ended up spraying inside the house. As they sat talking, Jessa started thinking about the hazards of her brother’s work.

“So, how’s Sara doing? She looked like she’s bouncing back, but does she really seem ok?” Jessa asked, thinking about the sling and the bandages on Sara’s face.

Greg shifted. He knew she worried about how dangerous his job was, and it probably didn’t help that he’d told her about Nick and Sara’s abductions. “She seems ok. I mean, I didn’t really get to talk to her. She came in to see Grissom, I guess, since she’s still on leave.”

She sighed. “I know you love your job...”

“Don’t, Jessa. There’s elements of danger in every job. Look at working in the ER. You never know that the person you’re planning on checking on isn’t armed and dangerous?” Greg said, arguing his point.

“I wasn’t beaten on my job, Greg. I wasn’t kidnaped and put in a coffin underground or dropped in the desert with a car on me. These people, the ones you investigate, they seem to have very dangerous relatives.” She said, hoping he’d understand that she wasn’t going to stop worrying anytime soon.

Greg, tapping into the dark humor that all CSIs seem to have, offered, “and you didn’t even know about the stalking.”

The look on Jessa’s face made Greg realize that she wasn’t ready for his humor. “Stalking? Someone was stalked? Who?”

Great, Greg thought, now Nick will have two strikes on the most dangerous job award thanks to him. He couldn’t lie to her, she’d know. So he tried to change the subject.

“So, which show do you want to check out? I hear the Mirage has a great floor show and it shouldn’t be too hard to get tickets.”

“Greg Sanders, do not change the subject on me. Who was stalked? And when?” Her tone along with the raised eyebrow told him he was fighting a losing battle.

“A few years back, Nick got cable put into his apartment. The cable guy, and yes I know that sounds like a bad joke, became obsessed with having a friendship with him. It was close, but the guy was caught.” He saw the color drain out of her cheeks.

“Nick?” She asked, her voice hushed. “Maybe I shouldn’t go out with him after all. Trouble seems to grab hold of him and hang on.”

Greg grimaced. He’d seen how happy Nick was that she’d agreed to go out with him, and now she was feeling like it was too much.

“Jessa, Nick couldn’t have known that he’d be irresistible to some random cable man and as scary as it is, he was a victim of chance in the kidnaping. It could have been any of us. The man who did that, he didn’t care which of us he got, he just wanted us to see how hard he was taking his daughter being convicted because of us.” He grabbed her hand and she looked up at him. “Nick is a great guy. And yeah, our job has it’s dangers. But it’s not just a job. I love what I do, so does Nick. We’re helping people, sometimes people who can no longer help themselves or speak for themselves. We give them a voice.”

Jessa listened to Greg. She could hear in his voice that he really felt like what he did helped people. And she knew he did. It was just scary to know that a family member with a grudge could be so dangerous to him. For her whole life, her family had been her constant, but it was Greg that she’d been closest to. The thought of losing him because of some dispute over evidence scared the crap out of her.

She smiled at him and nodded. “I know, it’s just frightening to think that you could be the next target.”

“I don’t think about it that way. And besides, if I am the next target, I’ll have the best CSI team working my case. We found Nick. We found Sara. They’d find me, too.”

Jessa loved that he felt so strongly about his coworkers’ abilities, loved that he was right. Her big brother had found his niche and she should be happier for him. And she would be, as soon as she stopped worrying that the next phone call would put him in danger.

“Ok. I know you love your job. And I know you’re good at it. I just can’t turn off my worried sister mode.” She squeezed his hand. “But I’m going to try to...”

“Try to?”

“Try to not be such a worry wart.” She said, releasing his hand. Anne was bringing their check and people were filing in at an alarming rate. “Now, can I please go home and get to bed?”

Greg grinned. “Oh yeah, cause you weren’t talking my head off.” He looked at the check and paid, adding a very nice tip.

They parted outside of the diner with an exchange of cheek pecks and a promise of going out to watch the showgirls. As Jessa got in her car, she had the strangest sensation of someone watching her. She looked out through her windshield, but saw only the windows of the diner glaring back in the early morning sun. Shaking it off as left over worries from her conversation with Greg, she backed out and drove home.