Title: Out in the World
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: gen - Greg Sanders
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Sequel to "In the Crosshairs."
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing him for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Well, what did he do now?

Greg sighed softly as he paced from one side of the hotel room to the other, feeling more restless than he had in a long time. He couldn't make himself sit still.

All he wanted to do was get out of this room, go to the crime lab, and see if they'd found out anything since the last day he'd been at work. He wanted to be out in the world.

But of course, he couldn't do that. He would just be sent back home, with admonitions and scolding. Everyone would tell him that it was too dangerous for him to be out in the open where his stalker could have easier access to him -- and they would be right.

He knew that he needed protection, but he wasn't afraid of whoever it was that had decided to try to strike terror into his heart. That person was a coward.

They didn't have the guts to meet him face to face, to show him who they were. Which, in Greg's eyes, made them not only cowardly, but worthless as a person.

He wasn't going to let someone like that get to him.

He wasn't going to let fear dictate how he lived his life. If he did that this time, even once, then he would always let that fear control him.

He couldn't live like that, and he knew it. If he let that kind of fear make his decisions for him, then he would look over his shoulder for the rest of his life, and he didn't want to live like that. It was no way to live. He'd seen victims do that before, and he wasn't a victim.

Greg clenched his hands into fists, anger rising within him. He wasn't going to let this unknown person, whoever they were, have such control over his life.

But at the same time, he knew that he shouldn't take risks.

He could always call the crime lab, and ask to talk to Nick or Sara. They would tell him anything that they had managed to discover. They wouldn't hold back.

Everyone had told him that he couldn't take unnecessary risks with him life, and they were right. He didn't want to do that. There was no need to put himself in danger. That would only be playing into the hand of the bastard who has orchestrated all of this.

He had to be smart about this, Greg told himself with a sigh. He couldn't just go running off half-cocked. He had to have some kind of a plan.

And right now, he was coming up empty on that score.

What could he do? There weren't very many options.

He had no idea what to do to bring his stalker out into the open, short of demanding that they openly confront each other. And he knew that wasn't going to happen.

Greg knew for a fact that someone like the person who was stalking him wouldn't take any unnecessary risks, either. If the two of them were to meet, his nemesis would make sure that the deck was stacked to favor them -- which meant that Greg had very little chance for survival.

He wasn't stupid enough to go walking into that kind of a trap, and he was sure that his rival wasn't stupid enough to believe that he would.

So, at the moment, they were at an impasse.

Anger surged through Greg, with resentment following. His enemy had freedom of movement; the bastard could go out anywhere that he wanted to be.

While he was cooped up here in a hotel room, feeling as though he was chafing at the bit and going stir crazy. He wanted -- no, he needed -- to get out of this room for a while, to be out in the open, to feel as though he wasn't a prisoner.

That was the worst part of all this. Not feeling as though he had to fear for his life, but feeling as if he was being kept in confinement and didn't know when he would escape.

That was just what his nemesis wanted.

He wasn't going to give in to that, Greg thought, lifting his chin in defiance. He wasn't going to give his enemy what he wanted. He wouldn't give his stalker that satisfaction.

Then he sighed, sitting down on the bed and closing his eyes. What could he do? It wasn't like he could go out and not have a care in the world.

No, he was trapped here, at least for the time being. Sara and Nick and everyone else he worked with were right; he couldn't take that kind of a risk. No matter how restless he felt, he would be foolish to go out and make himself an easy target.

That would be foolish, he told himself, sighing aloud. So, despite his restlessness, he could do nothing but stay here, and wait for the answers he sought.

But what if the CSI team couldn't find those answers? What if they were no closer to finding out who his stalker was than they had been a few days ago?

He would just have to be patient -- though that wasn't one of his better qualities.

Greg sighed again, getting to his feet. All he could do was order room service, watch something on television, and then call Nick and Sara to see what they'd discovered, if anything.

He'd just have to hope that there was something on cable worth watching, Greg thought as he picked up the remote. And that Nick and Sara would find something sooner rather than later.

***