DATE: February 2009
TITLE: We Simply Grow Taller
AUTHOR: LosingInTranslation
(Jennifer, losingntrnslatn)
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own anything associated with the show… I just like
playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: T for Teen
SPOILERS: None
WORD COUNT: 906
SUMMARY: Greg Sanders comes to terms with his place in life.
A/N: Came across the quote in this story on a friend’s away message today
and it just started talking to me. Oddly enough, it had a Norwegian accent when
it talked. ;) This is my first attempt at a character study of Greg Sanders.
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the
work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at
least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time
to read.
“You can understand and relate to most people
better if you look at them -no matter how old or impressive they may be -- as
if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much
-- we simply grow taller. O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear
uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we
always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by
fairy tales."
- Leo Rosten
Greg
Sanders was not a serious man by nature. Not that he was incapable of being
serious, but he had made a conscious choice to not dwell on the harsh realities
of life whenever possible. Most people thought it made him a clown, and Greg
was fine with that. It usually meant people would underestimate him, and made
those that didn’t easier to spot as his real friends.
Sara was
probably the first at C.S.I. to really see through that fool’s front. And Sara
Sidle never underestimated anyone. It was one of the many things that attracted
him to her, but in the end Greg could see that what she was attracted to was
not looking back at him in the mirror. It was the way she handled that fact
which made them friends.
Warrick
was probably the second. Not at first, but definitely later, when he saw how
hard Greg worked to improve his standing in the field. Warrick was the one who
showed him the ropes in those first disastrous days of field work. He took Greg
seriously, and made him believe he had a place as a C.S.I. Losing Warrick was
one of the hardest things he had ever experienced.
Grissom
was different from the rest in many ways. Not because he was probably the
smartest man Greg had ever known, but because he never held it over anyone’s
head that he was the smartest person in any room. He was gruff sometimes, but
he was the boss and that was his job. Greg respected him for being able to keep
everyone working together as a team, even the ones who never quite seemed to
fit in. Most people thought Grissom was deficient on the human side of things,
but Greg eventually figured out it was only because he kept apart from the
personal stuff in order to protect himself everyone else. Anytime he was able
to garner a glimmer of praise from the man, Greg was filled with more pride
than he could ever describe. Grissom truly was his mentor.
With
Warrick gone, and Grissom and Sara off on their next great adventure, Greg was
struggling to find his place at C.S.I. once more. He was no longer the Lab Rat,
no more the New Guy, and he felt like all of the excitement had drained out of
his life. Writing the book had been his way of holding onto the shine, the
glamour of being on the inside of Vegas life. And with that chapter closed as
well, Greg found the shine was clouding over.
And that
was when another stage of his life began, that of teacher.
Dr. Ray
Langston was anything but a rookie. But he was far from being a seasoned
professional, too. Ray was starting over fresh in a realm that was vastly
different from anything he had ever done before. He was a scientist, but a pure
one. He was an academic, but his days of being a student were long forgotten.
And this was Greg’s first real test as a teacher.
He worked
with Riley when she first came on board, but Riley wasn’t fresh out of the
gate. She already had the skills, she just needed a
little seasoning on the logistics of working as a C.S.I. in
Greg’s
first night out with Ray had been an exercise in patience. By the time they
were packing it in to head back to the lab, Greg suddenly had a tremendous
amount of respect for Sara and Warrick. Not once during his early days did they
ever yell at him for being a tool. They
always spoke with even tones and answered all of his questions, no matter how idiotic
they might have been.
On the
way back to the lab that morning, Ray asked him how he was doing. It actually
felt strange for someone to be asking him anything like that. He was just Greggo, the clown from DNA. Greg, the
rookie C.S.I. Greg, the perpetual kid. He was not prepared for the role
of Greg Sanders, teacher.
Expressing
his shock at being in the role of teacher with such an esteemed man, Greg was
surprised by Ray’s response. He told him no one ever truly grows up, and that
to live a full life, a person should never stop learning. “We are all just
children, staring into the face of the future and asking, ‘what’s next?’”
Greg
liked that answer, and it was then he truly became a teacher, as well as a
student, and they worked well together. Greg found his patience. Ray found his
stride. And at the end of each new skill, at the end of each case, Ray would
look at Greg with another smile, brimming with enthusiasm and ask, “What’s
next?”