Author's Note: Sid is a great character and doesn't get nearly enough love! So I'm gonna show some. :) Inspired by my recent Robert Joy crush (Oh, c'mon, you know he's hot ;) )

Also, I changed a lot of stuff, such as Sid's age (not by much), his marital status, and a few other things.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, and I obviously wouldn't be sitting in front of my computer writing fanfiction if I did. o.O

Rating: PG-13, possibly R for later chapters

Hope you like!

Waiting for You

Prologue

Sid sighed in frustration and slammed his hands down on the empty stainless steel examining table. He leaned forward and his head sunk past his shoulders, his eyes painfully closed.

"I can't…" he whispered to the cold empty room. "There's nothing here anymore."

Chapter 1

Sid cleared his throat. He lifted his head and looked around the large M.E.'s room in the basement. Being there used to make Sid feel secure and satisfied, but lately he had been feeling much like the corpses he examined everyday; cold and lifeless. Empty.

He knew it was a combination of many things, but Sid couldn't help feeling that it was his nonexistent love life that brought him down so low.

Four years earlier, he had divorced his wife of many years when he found out she was cheating on him with a colleague of hers.

Sid was a gentle, if a tiny bit creepy, man who wouldn't hurt a fly, much less the woman he loved dearly. It was only recently that he realized his marriage had been an illusion. Any sparks that had once been there were long gone, and in their hearts barely a fondness remained for each other.

It was a good thing, Sid now accepted, that it had ended when it had. The lie was gone, but the loneliness remained. It was there worse than ever, eating away at his insides like stinging acid.

Sid had still been young, at least at heart, until recently. He was in excellent shape and looked great for a man at his age of 51. His vibrant blue eyes usually studied his surroundings cheerfully behind his thick light brown-with-bits-of-gray hair. Sid's kind smile always shone though his soft lips when he chatted pleasantly with his colleagues. His gentle voice was something to be savored and he made friends wherever he went.

Sid's coworkers, the serious detectives and CSIs, liked Sid's friendly and somewhat twisted demeanor and could always look to him for a laugh on a hard day. Sid doubted that anyone noticed his change in personality because he hid it well, but it was getting much harder to keep his bitterness tucked away all day.

A couple of weeks before, Sid had been cussing out a puddle of spilled coffee on the floor when Hawkes walked into the break room. Sheldon's eyes widened when he heard Sid spitting obscenities he had never heard him use before. Sheldon had convinced himself that Sid was too nice to use, or even know words like that.

"Hey…everything alright, Sid? You need a hand?"

Sid stood up and spun around, startled. His face almost unnoticeably flushed.

"Oh, u-um…no," he stammered, looking from Hawkes to the coffee. "I just knocked it off the counter by accident, it's nothing." He glanced back at Hawkes, not meeting his eyes. Sid cleared his throat embarrassedly and turned back to his task. Sheldon looked at Sid's back questioningly then turned around and left the room.

Well…he is only human, I guess, Hawkes told himself, trying not to act so shocked.

After that incident, Sid became a little more cautious about showing his feelings at work.

The next week had Stella and Lindsay asking him if anything was wrong, as they both noticed the absence of his fun, cheesy jokes. Sid assured them he was fine, but his cold voice proved quite the opposite.

He was sinking, losing himself, and he almost didn't care anymore. When he used to solve puzzles and crosswords or research medical conditions in his free time, he would now sit in front of the television, more often than not with a strong drink in hand.

Still, Sid kept showing up to work. A small thread of hope was all that kept him connected with his life. He was still hanging on.

Please rate, whether you liked or not. Thanks!