Title: Obsession
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Continuation of Kiss Yourself Goodbye.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders, unfortunately, just borrowing him for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Greg shuddered as he pulled back the curtain at the front window of his apartment, looking out at the unmarked police car that was parked on the street. It wasn't far; all that the people in it would have to do if he was in trouble was run across the parking lot.

It had been two days now since that threatening phone call, and he'd become a lot more paranoid over the last forty-eight hours than he'd thought he could possibly be. Every scenario that his mind conjured up was worse than the last, and none of them ended well for him.

He didn't want to think about the words that mysterious voice had said to him over the phone. He didn't want to think about the possibility of those words coming true. Brass and the rest of the police force would protect him; they would find out who that threatening voice belonged to.

The rest of the CSI team would look out for him too. They had been even more careful than usual at the last few crime scenes they'd been to, looking around to see if there was anyone who took an undue interest in Greg, trying to glean some clue as to who was stalking him.

But so far, they'd come up empty-handed. There had been no further phone calls, but that didn't make Greg feel any better. It was frightening to be the object of someone's obsession, even when it seemed that the person might have backed off.

Greg was sure that wasn't the case; his stalker might be hiding for the time being, but he was positive that the man hadn't backed away at all. He was still out there, watching, just biding his time until he felt that he could slip through the protection that surrounded his target.

What was he going to do if this man's disturbing obsession went any further than just unwanted gifts in the mail and threatening messages on the phone? He was sure that his stalker was escalating; he'd seen this happen too many times to other people not to recognize the signs.

He'd always felt sorry for people who had to deal with something like this -- but he'd never thought that he himself would be on the wrong end of a stalking situation. Did others feel sorry for him? Was he now a figure to be pitied? He didn't want that.

What he wanted was to find this bastard and put him behind bars -- hopefully before things escalated any further and he found himself in actual physical danger. It hadn't gotten to that point yet, but Greg didn't doubt that it would. And the thought scared him silly.

He hadn't been able to sleep when he'd gotten home from work this morning; he'd drifted off not long after he'd gone to bed, but a horrible nightmare had woken him up, a scream lodged in his throat, the memory of what he'd dreamed about fading as soon as he awakened.

Even though he couldn't remember the nightmare clearly, he could still feel the fear that clogged his throat and made him break out in a cold sweat. He'd had to take a shower when he'd woken up; he had been drenched with sweat, as if he'd been underwater.

Now he was sitting on the couch in his living room, unable to sleep, his nerves on edge. He glanced at the window every few seconds, waiting to hear some kind of commotion from outside, wondering if his stalker would dare to come to his front door with yet another package.

Greg raised his hands in front of his face, studying them; they were shaking even harder than they had been after the explosion in the lab so long ago. He'd gotten over those shakes in time, but he had a feeling that these weren't going to go away until his stalker was caught.

How long would that be? Could this person be caught fairly easily, or would all of this drag on for months, with his nerves becoming more and more frayed with every day that passed? He didn't want to live like that. He'd seen firsthand what it could do to people.

He wasn't going to become one of those people who jumped at every shadow, who were afraid to live their lives because of how insecure a stalker had made them feel. He wasn't going to let this man run his life, and turn him into a different person.

No, he was going to find out who was doing this, and make sure that they were safely behind bars to that they wouldn't be able to make anyone else the target of their obsession. He wasn't going to break down, and he wasn't going to run away and hide.

Greg squared his shoulders, his eyes narrowing at the thought of the person who was doing this to him. Who did they think they were? They didn't control his life; he didn't even know them. And he didn't want to know them. He just wanted to put them in jail.

Terrorizing people in the way that they were was illegal, and they wouldn't get away with it. If they thought he was going to be a cowering victim, they were wrong. They might have managed to scare him by using surprise as an initial tactic, but that wouldn't work any more.

He wasn't going to be intimidated, and he wasn't going to be a coward. It would be easy to hide behind the cops, to let them surround him and not have to confront this bastard on his own. But that would be backing down -- and that was probably just what this man wanted.

Greg sighed softly, closing his eyes and trying to arrange his jumbled thoughts. It wouldn't be in his own best interests to try to effect a meeting with this man on his own -- after all, his life had been threatened. He couldn't take that threat lightly.

But he couldn't let this person go on terrorizing him, either. He didn't want to live his life being under the control fo someone who obviously wanted to toy with him; he was stronger than that. He had to think of some way to confront his stalker without risking his own safety.

This had gone beyond being something that he could shrug off, or handle on his own. He had known that from the time that he'd gotten that "delivery" on the front seat of his car. But he didn't want to hide behind anyone else, either. This was his problem to deal with.

Maybe he should talk to Nick. After all, his friend had been the target of a stalker's obsession more than once; maybe Nick could tell him what would be the best thing for him to do, or help him come up with some kind of plan to flush his nemesis out into the open.

The more Greg thought about that plan, the more he liked it. Yes, he would talk to Nick about this when he went to work tonight. If they had separate cases keeping them busy, he'd make plans to meet Nick after work to talk about the situation.

However this all ended up, he wasn't going to be on the losing end of the situation, Greg told himself firmly. They were going to catch this guy before he could do any damage, and the threats were going to stop. He'd finally be able to sleep without having nightmares.

Greg sighed, leaning his back against the couch cushions and closing his eyes. It was getting harder to keep his eyes open; he needed to get some sleep. He only hoped that this would be over soon, and he would no longer be the object of someone's obsession.

***